{"id":23,"date":"2009-04-20T16:57:52","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T20:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/?p=23"},"modified":"2009-04-30T11:03:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T15:03:04","slug":"resources-minorities-and-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cryforhelp\/resources\/statistics\/resources-minorities-and-mental-health\/23\/","title":{"rendered":"Minorities and Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"An injured occupant is carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007. A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech, killing 21 people before he was killed, police said. (AP Photo\/The Roanoke Times, Alan Kim)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

It was the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

On April 16, 2007, a senior at Virginia Tech University opened fire on the Virginia campus, killing 32 people before taking his own life.<\/p>\n

The tragedy not only shook the nation; it also called into question the availability, and efficacy, of mental health services for minorities. Although the shooter, Korean student Seung-Hui Cho, had been referred to psychological counseling for symptoms of mental illness, he did not get sufficient help. And although his example is extreme, experts use it to highlight what they see as a common problem: insufficient mental health care for immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Cho) was referred to care and he went, but he never followed up,\u201d says Nola Zane, Director of the Asian American Center on Disparities Research at the University of California Davis, a government-funded initiative launched in the months after the massacre at VA Tech. \u201cThis is not uncommon. Only about 28 percent of Asian Americans with mental illness seek help, because they are ashamed, afraid, and also concerned about how, if people find out they have mental illness, it would reflect on their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2005 study by the Asian American Psychological Association showed that when Asian Americans do come for counseling, they show higher levels of psychological distress compared to other groups, in most cases because they have delayed seeking treatment for so long. And relative to other minority groups, Asian Americans spend the least time in treatment.<\/p>\n

The problem is not confined to the Asian-American community. Studies have shown that several minority groups are much less likely to receive needed mental health services than whites, and that when treatment is sought, it\u2019s often poor quality.<\/p>\n

Some of the more troubling findings by the government\u2019s Office of Minority Mental Health include:<\/p>\n