Although depression is a common mental illness in many societies and has recently been defined as a major public health problem, immigrants and Asian Americans are less likely to seek professional treatment than Caucasians (Park & Bernstein 12). As an Asian American and immigrant myself, I want to understand the nature of this disparity. This paper will explore the reasons why Asian Americans underutilize mental health services and how to increase their usage. This paper hypothesizes that social conditions and stigma are the major obstacles preventing Asians in the U.S. from seeking professional help for depression.
The article, Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression, written by Alison Karasz, offers three hypotheses to explain the cultural differences in treatment seeking (1625). The first is the somatization hypothesis, which proposes that “people from traditional cultural backgrounds either deny psychological distress, interpret such distress as somatic illness, or present distress as physical illness in medical settings” (Karasz 1625). Although the growing population of Asian Americans in the United States has been exposed to Western culture, the influences and teachings of Confucianism remain (Park & Bernstein 13). Confucianism is a collectivist tradition that discourages open displays of emotions, in order to maintain group (social or familial) harmony or avoid exposure of a personal weakness. The Asian family unit is valued over the individual, and the individual is expected to sacrifice for family needs (Park & Bernstein 13). Under such pressure, Asian Americans with mental disorders do not openly seek family support for their illnesses. Consequently, without the support of a family or social network, Asian Americans may feel less encouraged to seek professional treatment.
The second hypothesis presented by Karasz focuses on stigma, suggesting that stigma accounts for the ethnic and cultural differences in mental health treatment...