Barriers to Mental Health Service Utilization by South Asian Communities in North America
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Authors
Bardoloi, Abhishek
Issue Date
2021-12-07
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
South Asian , counselling , BIPOC , stigmatization , acculturation , cultural sensitivity
Alternative Title
Abstract
South Asian (SA) communities in North America have been shown to have lower rates of utilization of mental health services when compared to the dominant Western demographic (Chaudhry & Chen, 2019). This literature review aims to (a) investigates some of the challenges that SA communities endure that reduce mental health service utilization and (b) provide suggestions for counsellors to help SA communities both within counselling sessions, as well as outside of counselling sessions. This literature review examines current research on SA communities and current barriers that exists that reduce the likelihood of this community seeking mental health support. Acculturation stress, stigmatization around mental illness and mental health support, and a lack awareness of available mental health services have contributed to lower rates of mental health service utilization (Islam et al., 2018). Counsellors can help SA communities seek mental health support by introducing cultural sensitivity in session and also improving mental health literacy outside of counselling sessions. Future research on SA mental health workers, the Mental Health Care Act (MHCA; Sharma & Kommu, 2019), as well as the impact of COVID-19 on SA communities can prove beneficial.
Description
Citation
Publisher
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
openAccess
openAccess