{"id":1114,"date":"2025-07-30T17:18:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2025-07-30T17:18:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:18:01","slug":"latino-african-american-and-asian-youth-in-the-u-s-face-greater-barriers-to-mental-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/american-community-media\/latino-african-american-and-asian-youth-in-the-u-s-face-greater-barriers-to-mental-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Latino, African American, and Asian youth in the U.S. face greater barriers to mental health care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Experts gathered at an American Community Media panel warned of the alarming inequality in access to mental health services among racialized communities in the U.S., amid a growing crisis that especially affects children and young people.<\/strong>

Alarming increase: depression, anxiety, and loneliness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMental health in children and young people is the crisis of our time,\u201d warned former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. And the numbers back him up: over 22% of Gen Z young adults experienced a major depressive episode in 2023, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Four out of ten children report persistent feelings of sadness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Ovsanna Leyfer, a researcher at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University, noted that this crisis has been growing for over a decade but worsened significantly after the pandemic. \u201cBetween 2009 and 2019, the number of high school students reporting persistent sadness rose by 40%. The emergency was officially declared in 2021,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple, interrelated factors feed this situation: prolonged screen time, constant social media comparison, post-pandemic isolation, academic and parental pressure, and the economic and social stress many families face. \u201cMany kids no longer play or enjoy life. They\u2019re just trying to survive each day,\u201d Leyfer warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effective therapies, unequal access<\/strong>

Despite the bleak outlook, there are concrete alternatives. \u201cWe have effective treatments, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has shown positive results in 60% to 80% of anxiety cases,\u201d Leyfer explained. This therapy, which helps replace negative thoughts with more functional ones, also promotes behaviors tied to a sense of achievement\u2014particularly in youth experiencing depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the effectiveness of these treatments runs into serious structural barriers. Dr. Kiara \u00c1lvarez, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, emphasized the stark inequality in access to mental health care. \u201cIndigenous, Latino, and African American communities face disproportionate obstacles. These are historical disparities that the health system still hasn\u2019t addressed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c1lvarez also highlighted how emotional impacts are compounded by events like immigration raids. \u201cEven when the separation of parents and children only happens in the news, it leaves deep marks on kids,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural burden and invisible trauma<\/strong>

For therapist Soo Jin Lee, director of the Yellow Chair Collective, it\u2019s essential to approach mental health with cultural competence. \u201cMany Asian American youth feel they don\u2019t have the right to be sad because their parents sacrificed everything. They carry guilt that makes their own pain invisible,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee works with teenagers facing intergenerational trauma\u2014war, displacement, colonization, systemic oppression\u2014and parenting styles that, while protective, rarely express affection verbally. \u201cMany kids just want their parents to say \u2018I love you.\u2019 And they never hear it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culturally appropriate access to mental health care is also a major obstacle. Only 3% of psychologists in the U.S. identify as Asian. \u201cThat lack of representation complicates treatment and often keeps youth from seeking help, because they don\u2019t feel understood,\u201d Lee added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of listening and support<\/strong>

Victoria Birch, a volunteer counselor and member of the California Office of Youth and Community Restoration, shared her personal story. Marked by years of depression, anxiety, and self-harm, she went in and out of prison from age 16 to 22. \u201cMy mom couldn\u2019t raise four kids on her own. I just wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere,\u201d she said during the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her path to healing began with Beloved Village<\/em>, an organization that supports formerly incarcerated youth. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to talk. But they taught me that talking can save you. Today I have a healthy relationship with my mother and my siblings,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birch emphasized the importance of safe spaces and genuine support: \u201cIf they hadn\u2019t listened to me, I probably wouldn\u2019t be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An urgent and collective response<\/strong>

The mental health crisis affecting children and youth cannot be solved through isolated solutions. As the panelists agreed, it requires systemic and comprehensive intervention: school-based prevention, equitable access to quality treatments, culturally aware approaches, public policies that address inequality, and a collective effort to eliminate stigma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal is to reduce risk factors,\u201d concluded Kiara \u00c1lvarez. \u201cBut to do that, we must first acknowledge that these problems are not evenly distributed. Some youth carry much heavier burdens than others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it\u2019s critical to understand that this crisis isn\u2019t just the result of improved detection or higher diagnostic rates. The current conditions\u2014economic, digital, familial, and social\u2014are having a real, profound impact on the emotional well-being of millions of young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts gathered at an American Community Media panel warned of the alarming inequality in access to mental health services among racialized communities in the U.S., amid a growing crisis that especially affects children and young people. Alarming increase: depression, anxiety, and loneliness \u201cMental health in children and young people is the crisis of our time,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[686],"tags":[1257,1258,1256],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-community-media","tag-acom","tag-ee-uu","tag-mental-health"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}