By: Katelyn Chang and Chloe Ho; Editor-in-Chief and Staff Writer
Hard work is what many Chinese people value most. Pushing yourself to do better, even in areas that you may be weak in, will most certainly result in success. There’s a similar mindset with mental health, according to a conversation with clinical psychologist Joyce Chu: When your mental health is weak, it’s viewed as just another area to grow more “proficient” in: just work harder to be mentally healthier and at some point, you’ll gain the resilience of a horse. But as she goes on to say, that’s really not the case. Something as far-fetched as “working harder” on your mental health is one of the several harmful results of the topic being talked so little about in the Chinese community. The most notable result is the silent struggle, lacking proper support but not being able to reach out for it because of the stigma around it and mental health as a whole. It’s no wonder that the Asian-American community has the lowest rates of mental health service usage in the country, despite other statistics suggesting that they might need it more. Recognizing this huge, hardly spoken of issue, Sylvia Tang and Joyce Chu have collaborated to create the “Be Sensitive, Be Brave” workshops which especially cater to the Chinese community to destigmatize and start a conversation around mental health issues.
This project came from a partnership with Santa Clara County, in which a lot of issues with their mental health training problems arose. Things such as time restraints and not being culturally open made it uncomfortable and thus motivated something new to be made. Chu’s two-hour training workshops, “Be Sensitive, Be Brave”, are culturally infused and cover a great range of topics. The first training talks about the basics of mental health and wellness. It goes into details on what the difference is between just going through everyday highs and lows versus when to seek professional assistance, as well as how to maintain good mental health and the different categories of it. The other covers being familiar with suicide and learning how to prevent it. It talks about what it is, how to help and connect with someone who might be suffering from suicidal thoughts, and warning signs across cultures. It takes place on Zoom and is interactive with polls and activities.
Joyce Chu is a professor and licensed clinical psychologist at the Palo Alto medical center. A Chinese-American, Chu’s parents didn’t know what the concept of mental health was, and her relatives around her suffered from a range of different unrecognized problems like substance abuse, depression, and eating disorders. It occurred to no one in her family that they could reach out for help for those issues. The community around her wasn’t much different – Chu saw great amounts of unnecessary suffering that could’ve been resolved if people got the support and help that they needed. Today, not only is she a clinical psychologist and professor, but she’s a community and cultural psychologist and a suicidologist. Her life’s mission is to reach out to underserved communities and break down barriers and stigmas around mental health in Asian-American populations. Together she works with Sylvia Tang, who works for the San Mateo County Behavioral Health & Recovery Services Office of Diversity and Equity (BHRS ODE) and is the co-chair of the Suicide Prevention Committee. San Mateo County observed an increase in suicide-related deaths among Asian males born outside of the US between 2019 and 2020. After finding out about Chu’s workshops, Tang reached out to collaborate with her and make it accessible to more in the community by translating it into Mandarin.
The goal of these workshops are not only to educate, but to start and change the conversation around mental health. Tang and Chu aim to have mental health conversations revolve more around support rather than just coping with it and waiting for the problems to pass. Resilience is indeed a sign of strength, and endurance is undeniably a good trait to exhibit when faced with a problem. But the strongest thing one can do is to admit they need help and know when they need some assistance until they’re at a point where they are healthier and stronger. Being able to be honest rather than keeping it all inside is the best thing you can do for yourself, and it’s the first step on the road to becoming the best person you can be.
If interested, feel free to reach out to Sylvia Tang through her email at stang@smcgov.org.
