National Minority Mental Health Month: Culture, Community, and Connection

July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The theme for this year’s observance is “Culture, Community, and Connection”. This theme highlights the fact that one’s environment can heavily influence their mental health. Additionally, this theme emphasizes how vital encouragement and support in communities is in the process of ensuring people get the help they need. 

According to research, in 2018, Asians were 60 percent less likely to have received mental health treatment as compared to non-Hispanic white people. One study found that 70 percent of Southeast Asian refugees receiving mental health care were diagnosed with PTSD as a result of trauma experienced before, after, and during their immigration to the U.S (Dr. Richard Mollica, 2004).

Racial and ethnic minority communities face challenges that may deter or prevent them from seeking treatment, such provider biases, stigma, and lack of access to treatment. These obstacles can be a product of social determinants of health, which are non-medical factors that may influence health outcomes. These are the conditions in which people live, work, and grow. Social determinants of health can contribute to health inequities for minority populations.

Research also shows that daily stressors can be detrimental to the mental health of racial and ethnic minority populations. Racial trauma weighs heavily on mental health and the experiences with racial inequities that racially marginalized individuals face cause ongoing psychological distress (Cénat, 2022).

As we observe National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, we continue to acknowledge the unique mental health struggles faced by racial and ethnic minority communities and raise awareness to cultivate environments that encourage seeking treatment for mental health challenges.

References

Dr. Richard Mollica. (2004). SILENT TRAUMA: diabetes, health status, and the refugee Southeast Asians in the United States. In New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.aapcho.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/SilentTrauma.pdf

Cénat, J. M. (2022). Complex Racial Trauma: evidence, theory, assessment, and treatment. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(3), 675–687. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221120428