Assignment 9: Stakeholders

Despite showing signs of mental illness, disorders such as schizophrenia and ADHD in Asian American adults (age 20-60) living in the United States are rarely diagnosed or treated by a doctor.

I would say that because of the specific nature of my problem and the minority it affects, there are relatively few stakeholders compared to perhaps bigger issues. However, there are still stakeholders to consider when considering possible intervention.

There are several possible ways to encourage Asian American adults who show symptoms of mental illness to visit mental health experts. One possible concern I will address before discussing the different ways is the question of whether Asian American adults can identify symptoms of mental illness enough to even think about getting treatment. Though the concern is a valid question and certainly needs more research to verify my opinion, I believe that identifying symptoms is not an issue because mental illnesses have rather distinct symptoms. For example, hallucinations are unlikely to be attributed to a physical illness. Even those who, like many Asian Americans, believe that the mind and body are not separate (Yuasa) will realize that the mind has something to do with the ailment. So I believe I can reasonably conclude that Asian American adults can recognize when they have symptoms of mental illness. The issue is that they are not going to the doctor to get diagnosed and therefore go untreated, not that they do not recognize symptoms of illness.

One suggestion for encouraging them to visit mental health experts is making access to health insurance easier, a much larger problem in and of itself. The stakeholders of this intervention suggestion would be insurance companies who would need to better reach out and communicate to the Asian American community and/or make their insurance more affordable. Many Asian Americans go without insurance because they are small business owners and do not receive it from their jobs nor can afford private insurance. (Carrasquillo) By making health insurance more accessible and affordable, the number of people who utilize mental health services and therefore get diagnosed and treated, will increase. The insurance companies who are the stakeholders would lose the money they gain by refusing to make insurance more accessible and affordable but may gain more money in the future by preventing more costly medical issues caused by untreated mental illness. In this intervention suggestion, my problem becomes part of the bigger, broader problem of lacking health insurance and considers the stakeholders that are part of that larger problem.

A more specific intervention suggestion for encouraging Asian American adults to visit mental health experts is to urge them through valued community leaders. This will address the social stigma that seems to be the main reason why there is underdiagnosis and therefore undertreatment of mental illnesses in Asian American adults. The stakeholders would be the community leaders and environments who would need to agree that mental health services should be utilized and agree to encourage the people they serve to utilize them. An example of this would be for Korean Americans. Many Korean Americans have strong social and cultural connections with their churches, making pastors and other church officials powerful community leaders. (Lee) If pastors agree to encourage their constituents to seek help for mental illness symptoms, it could drastically change the social stigma surrounding mental health services and lead to appropriate diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses.

Of course, the stakeholders who have the most to gain are Asian American adults themselves. Mental illnesses affect not only the afflicted, but also everyone the afflicted associate with. The symptoms of mental illness are not only privately suffered, but also bear negatively on the emotional wellbeing of others. Solving the problem of underdiagnosis and undertreatment of mental illnesses will improve the lives of many Asian Americans, not only an unlucky few. However, as stakeholders, they too have to make sacrifices. They will need to put the time, effort, and money into getting help and utilizing the services offered. They will need to change their attitude on receiving mental health help as something only for the "crazies".

The most important stakeholders for my problem are the community leaders. They will have the highest impact on a real solution but with a fair amount of sacrifice on their part. I believe my intervention suggest about using the community leaders and organizations to encourage Asian American adults to use mental health services has great promise, especially as the strong ties between community leaders and Asian American adults makes the community leaders invested in their constituents wellbeing.

Works Cited

Carrasquillo, Olveen, and Steven Shea. "Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants Living in the United States: Differences by Citizenship Status and Country of Origin." American Journal of Public Health, n.d. Web. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446276/pdf/10846509.pdf>.

Lee, Hochang B., Jennifer A. Hanner, Seong-Jin Cho, Hae-Ra Han, and Miyong T. Kim. "KoreaMed Synapse." Http://dx.doi.org/10.4306/pi.2008.5.1.14. Official Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 06 Apr. 2013. <http://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4306/pi.2008.5.1.14>.

Sue, Stanley, Derald W. Sue, Leslie Sue, and David T. Takeuchi. "Psychopathology among Asian Americans: A Model Minority?" US: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., n.d. Web. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=45d5e36d-ffcf-4896-aa50-64a736eaa8d4%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=6&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=pdh&AN=1999-00182-004>.

Yuasa, Yasuo, and Thomas P. Kasulis. "Editor's Introduction." The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-body Theory. Albany: State University of New York, 1987. N. pag. Web. 6 Apr. 2013.