Document Type

Article

Date of Capstone Completion

2024

Abstract

Mental illness is a significant concern affecting millions of people in the United States every year. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five U.S. adults and one in six U.S. youth experience a mental health illness yearly. Shockingly, 50% of all lifetime mental illnesses begin by the age of 14, and 75% by the age of 24. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2023), 37% of Asian American adults reported that their mental health status was "not good." Astonishingly, 73.1% of these individuals did not receive treatment, compared to 56.7% of the overall population. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OMH, 2019) states that suicide is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans aged 15-24. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the US yet have the lowest rate of utilizing mental health services. They also remain the most understudied ethnic group, leading to a lack of understanding of the reasons behind this disparity and how to address it effectively. This research aims to investigate the barriers that hinder Asian Americans from accessing mental health services at different levels, such as individual, cultural, societal, physical, and structural. It also examines differences in mental health service utilization between first-generation immigrant and US-born Asian Americans, and the relationship between socioeconomic status and help-seeking behavior in the Asian American population. This study's findings could help develop strategies to improve mental health service access and utilization among Asian Americans. Social workers must contribute to research and designs to address this issue and improve the well-being of Asian American individuals, groups, or communities. By increasing access and improving help-seeking behavior, social workers can mitigate the mental health disparities that have long plagued this population.

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