AAPI Politics Briefing: Mental health disparities

Issue 74 • MARCH 5, 2024

👋 Happy Super Tuesday! Welcome back to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing—your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders.

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— Edited by Shawna Chen

THE BIG STORY

The presidential seal in the foyer of Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library as seen on Feb. 21, 2012 in Yorba Linda, California. Photo: Adam Jones via Wikimedia Commons

How U.S. foreign policy has shaped AAPI mental health needs

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U.S. foreign policy is an oft-overlooked variable when examining mental health needs among AAPIs, but a new report spotlights it as a key driver in mental health disparities that persist among AAPI subgroups today.

📃 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The report—published last week by AAPI Data and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research—states that it aims to steer “a more nuanced discourse … that connects present-day mental health needs with the systemic barriers and multi-generational trauma that were often byproducts of U.S. foreign policy.”The breakdown: Nearly 24% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) adults say they need mental health support compared to 16% of Asian American (AA) adults, according to the report. While those figures are on par with or lower than California’s overall population (24%), the report’s authors warn that self-identified mental health needs may not provide a complete picture.

Nearly half of NHPI and AA adults also report everyday experiences with discrimination—both groups say they’re often asked where they’re from and receive poorer service in restaurants and stores, though Asian Americans say they’re also at times treated as if they don’t speak English. Much of COVID-driven anti-Asian hate was also a direct result of China bashing and scapegoating.

Gun violence is an additional anxiety for 45% of NHPIs and 46% of AAs—higher than California’s overall population (30%).

Worth noting: A November AAPI Data/AP-NORC survey found that a majority of AAPI adults rated their mental health as “very good or excellent” even though almost 7 in 10 experienced anxiety stressors—a reflection of the gap in self-identified need.

Yes, but: Of those who do seek mental health support, roughly 4 in 10 NHPIs and 3 in 10 AAs report that they encounter barriers to accessing care, such as cost, awareness of options, and lack of insurance, per AAPI Data’s analysis with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.Go deeper: What the report categorized as “Other Southeast Asians”—including Laotian, Cambodian, and Thai people)—reported the highest rates of difficulty accessing mental health support at 53% compared to 31% of Asian Americans overall. Vietnamese adult respondents reported the second-highest rates of difficulty, at 37%.

For Filipino Americans surveyed, the report shared how legacies of war-induced trauma and colonization created a culture of “survivor mentality” that interferes with help-seeking behavior.

For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, U.S. colonization and subsequent militarization similarly “created a complicated web of immigration statuses governing the access of NHPIs to essential services and resources.”

Many may be U.S. nationals from U.S. territories or migrants from countries that are part of the Compact of Free Association, but lack of full U.S. citizenship means limited access to public benefits and can contribute to long-term socioeconomic and health inequities.

Different AAPI subgroups have vastly different historical contexts in relation to their journeys to the U.S. Many Southeast Asians, for example, came to the U.S. as refugees and in the aftermath of war and violence throughout Southeast Asia. In turn, the mental health outcomes for different subgroups can vary widely.

The report is part of a wider push for disaggregated data and more nuanced conversations around differing experiences for Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian American subgroups.

“Community-informed research is foundational to addressing the distinct mental health needs of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities,” AAPI Data founder and director Karthik Ramakrishnan said in a press release.

Expanding mental health awareness and anti-stigma interventions, training a culturally and linguistically diverse mental health workforce, and increasing the number of care providers were among the report’s policy recommendations for improving mental health outcomes. Methodology: The analysis is based on data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research’s California Health Interview Survey from 2020 through 2022, an annual “population-representative” health survey for Californians.

Researchers conducted follow-up interviews for AAPIs who responded to the initial survey to gather further data.

— By

Katrina Pham

Shawna Chen

AAPI NATION

The entrance to the Guam Memorial Hospital as seen on July 3, 2010. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

👉 Here’s what else is happening across America…

🏥 After months of disputes and debates, Guam senators voted to rebuild the Guam Memorial Hospital at Ypao Point, Vincent Akimoto writes in a column for Pacific Island Times. The hospital has been a mainstay in the community for over half a century and is the only public hospital serving the entire island. ❤️‍🩹 Hawai‘i state senators have expressed concern over rising hotel room costs for Maui residents displaced by the Lahaina wildfires, Honolulu Civil Beat’s Kevin Dayton reports. Lawmakers from the Aloha State are renewing calls for support from the federal government, which they say still has not arrived.

In their words: “We are bleeding right now, and it needs to stop, and I understand it’s hard,” state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D) said in a tense hearing. “But there’s no level set by the administration what the cost is to the rest of the operations state government if we don’t get this under control right now.”

🎓 A new study finds that South Asian American applicants are 50% less likely to attend prestigious universities compared to their white peers, NBC Asian America’s Sakshi Venkatraman reports. Legacy admissions likely contributes to that disparity, the study’s authors say. 🎰 The looming expansion of New York casinos could disproportionately target Asian Americans, especially elders, by bombarding them with aggressive advertisements, Rafia Tasleem writes for BNN Breaking.

🎖️ The Sacramento Bee has released its list of 2023 Asian American and Pacific Islander Change Makers, honoring those in the Sacramento region who pushed the boundaries to bolster their community.

Included on the list are: CivicWell CEO Bernadette Austin, the Institute for the Future mayor-in-residence Christopher Cabaldon, Yolo County Office of Education’s former director of financial services Frances Losana Palu, California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Pat Fong Kushida and ChangeLawyers director of programs Jasjit Singh.

🏠 Asian Americans and Latinos have seen the biggest homeownership gains in recent years despite rising interest rates, Axios’ Astrid Galván and Russell Contreras report.

By the numbers: 63% of Asian Americans owned a home in 2022 in contrast to 57% in 2012, per a report by NAR.

🎬 A new vanguard of South Asian actors is taking the helm in Hollywood after stars like Kal Penn and Priyanka Chopra paved the way, The Tribune’s Savi Parmar writes.🧧 Businesses are moving to capitalize on Lunar New Year by experimenting with marketing amid increasing awareness around the holiday, Axios’ Hope King notes.

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