Please respond to you peer discussion post below, your post should be scholarly written, APA formatted 7th edition with at least 2 references.
Recent data shows us increasing rates of psychological distress and large disparities in mental health service utilization among Asian American (AA) subgroup (Balaraman et al., 2022). This demonstrates the widespread issues to mental health care that AA individuals experience. Largely due to cultural beliefs around treatment as well as how they would be perceived if they were to get treatment. Asian Indians and Chinese are two of the most highly educated demographic groups in US society, yet they have some of below-average rates when it comes to using mental health care, even if income is above average. This stigma is common among many Asian communities and plays a part in the rates of underreporting as well as discouraging patients from receiving the proper assistance (Balaraman et al., 2022). In many of these communities there is the added layer of stigma born from cultural beliefs relating to mental problems as something shameful on a personal and family level (Maeshima & Parent, 2020).
Filipino Americans had higher mental health service utilization rates compared to other AA subgroups (Balaraman et al., 2022). Filipino Americans only where psychological distress had increased greatly uptake rates failed to rise commensurately with the upswing in treatment need. This highlights just how much demand for culturally competent support is still needed across all AA sub-populations.
This is where Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) come in to fill those gaps. APNs can help to reduce mental health stigma, increase trust in mental health services within the AA population by incorporating culturally sensitive approaches into their practice. Proposed initiatives could include mental health screenings that recognize presentations of distress seen in AA patients and others. APNs can also build relationships with community leaders to help reduce the stigma of mental health care and create avenues overcoming language and culture barriers. Culturally appropriate interventions and community partnerships, APNs can help to enable AA individuals to seek assistance which may have implications in reducing the high level of untreated mental health problems among this population. With this approach, combined with treating mental health as a fundamental element of whole-person care can work toward improving the likelihood that individuals, families and communities achieve improved outcomes for their overall well-being.
References
Balaraman, K. K., Dan, S., Ortega, N., Srinivasan, M., Palaniappan, L., Singh, J., Chung, S., & Joshi, S. V. (2022). Psychological distress and mental health service utilization disparities in disaggregated Asian American populations, 2006–2018. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 14(3), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000294
Maeshima, L. S., & Parent, M. C. (2020). Mental health stigma and professional help-seeking behaviors among Asian American and Asian international students. Journal of American College Health, 70(6), 1761–1767. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1819820
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