Mental health service use from a religious or spiritual advisor among Asian Americans

Abstract

Background Asian Americans experience significant underuse of mental health treatment. Religious clergy and spiritual advisors play a critical role in delivering mental health care in the United States. Limited knowledge exists about their use among Asian Americans. Objective We describe mental health service use from a religious/spiritual advisor among Asian Americans. Methods We analyzed data from 2095 respondents in the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study. Results Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of mental health service use from a religious/spiritual advisor (5.5% and 1% overall, respectively) was generally higher among U.S.-born Asians and those with a 12-month mental disorder (23.6% and 7.5%, respectively). Religious/spiritual advisors were seen by 35% of treatment-seeking Asian Americans with a lifetime mental disorder. They were seen as commonly as psychiatrists but less commonly than a mental health specialist or general medical provider. Approximately 70% of those seeking treatment had a mental disorder, significant proportions of whom sought treatment in the absence of a psychiatrist, a mental health specialist or even a healthcare provider. A significant majority with 12-month use perceived the care as helpful, felt accepted/understood and satisfied (71–86%). However, only 31% rated the care as excellent, 28% quit completing care, and referral rates for specialty mental health treatment were low, even among those with a mental disorder (9.5%). Conclusions Religious/spiritual advisors are a key source of treatment-seeking for Asian Americans with a mental disorder. Quality of care and low referral rates for specialty mental health treatment warrant further attention and need for increased collaboration with the mental health system.

The role of religious advisors in mental health care in the World Mental Health surveys

“…Chinese US-born or immigrants were much less religiously affiliated than the general US population: 50% declared a religious affiliation; 0.6% of Chinese immigrants and 4.6% of US-born Chinese reported a 12 month use of religious advisors for mental health problems as compared to 0.3% in our Chinese sample (0.1% in Shenzhen) showing a sort of gradient toward religious affiliation and religious advisors use from China mainland to the US born Chinese [18]. The relative importance of religious providers in Africa is in line with a previous community survey from Nigeria, reporting that the preferred treatment options for mental disorders were religious healers, traditional healers, and use of formal health care services with 41, 30 and 29%, respectively [19].…”

Using Social Media to Improve Undergraduate Students’ Mental Health

“…Hence, they often used social media, such as facebook, websites, or blogs, to gain relevant information and tried to use the information acquired from social media to resolve their own mental health problems, without going to professional mental health services. These results are similar to some studies indicated that individuals who first seek help from religion or spiritual advisors are less likely to utilize professional mental health services (e.g., John & Williams, 2013 [15]).…”

Help-seeking behaviors among Chinese people with mental disorders: a cross-sectional study

“…These practices are based on folk explanatory models that ascribe mental illnesses to an imbalance in the psychosocial, physiological and/or supernatural environment [11]. A previous study among Asian Americans found that 35% of patients with a lifetime mental disorder had visited religious/spiritual advisors [27]. However, the present study showed that only 0.7% of individuals with mental disorder sought help from such sources, and that in patients who did seek any help, no more than 0.9% first went to those sources.…”