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Suicide is a leading cause of death for young Asian Americans

Photo by pxfuel

When the public thinks about racially motivated violence, they will often think about mass shootings such as the one in the Atlanta spa on March 26. However, an often overlooked racially motivated cause of death in Asian Americans is suicide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that intentional self-harm (suicide) is the leading cause of death in Asian Americans age 15-24.

According to the American Psychological Association, Asian Americans need culturally tailored care. The article states that 1 in 2 Asian Americans suffering from mental illness will not seek assistance because of language barriers. Additionally, a study in 2002 cites that only 2.3% of 90,000 doctoral-level psychologists are of Asian descent, adding to the difficulty of a language barrier.

Asian Americans that were born in the United States are also at a higher risk for mental illness due to cultural clashes between American culture and Asian culture.

Information about this is rare. According to PhD candidate Amelia Noor-Oshiro, there has just been one national study conducted on Asian American mental health. That study conducted by the Massachusetts General Research Institute dates back to the early 2000s. Ever since the study was conducted, the Asian population in America has increased by 72%.

The numbers cited by the CDC dates back to 2018, so experts are not fully aware of how the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in Asian hate crimes have affected the data.

“Communities of color also have trouble accessing mental health treatment, so we don’t know how these groups — Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous Americans — will be affected,” psychologist Rhonda Boyd said in an article by the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Hopefully more data will come out and we’ll get a better picture.”

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Here are some pictures that involve mental health:

https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jrfmp

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mental_Health_Message.jpg

1 COMMENT

  1. This is evidence of poor understanding of data. Maybe it would help if you were Asian American 😉
    Yes it’s true that suicide is the leading cause of death among young Asian Americans. (BTW, ithe rate is more than twice as for Koreans as for all Asians Americans — way to go with the stereotyping!). But here’s the only significant facts and figures you need to be looking at if you’re concerned about suicide in different ethnic/racial groups:
    Rate (per 100,000) for 15-34 year olds, by group:
    All Americans: 15.8
    Asian American and Pacific Islanders: 10.5
    White Non-Hispanic: 19.2
    Black Non-Hispanic: 11.3

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