By SweSwe Aye/Myanmar Gazette
Mental health problems are huge challenges for people of all communities, including the Myanmar community. Such challenges have become more acute during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are many barriers in the Myanmar community in reaching out to mental health professionals. Many Burmese people grapple with generational trauma, but have to fight first with social taboos and language barrier to get access to mental health services.
The limitation of resources in the community is another challenge. The Asian Mental Health Collective lists only 5 Burmese mental health providers across the US.
Language Barriers
Asian Health Services, headquartered in Oakland, California, provides a variety of health care — including mental health services — for AANHPIs, including the Burmese/Myanmar community. It provides primary care, dental, behavioral health care to nearly 50,000 patients.
Asian Health Services has been filling the needs of the community since 1974. There were 1,500 visitors in its first year and 50, 000 patients have since been served. 14 languages, including Burmese, Karen and Karenni are used to overcome the language barrier challenges for the immigrants. Those who come to Asian Health Services do not need to have health insurance. IDs and immigration status are not asked to get health services in Asian Health Services.
Covid-19 Pandemic
According to the survey of 300 students through AHS’ youth program in 2021, 40% youth surveyed reported feeling “worse” or “much worse.” 75% of AHS patients were not leaving home, according to a survey of 1300 AHS patients in 2021. AHS’ mental health visits are 2.5 times what it was pre-COVID.
In addition to medication and counseling methods, community participation and breaking through isolation also play major roles in solving different mental health problems.
Healing From Racism
Julia Liou, Chief Executive Officer of AHS said: “We are extremely mindful and thoughtful about the cultural ways of approaches to mental health, because we know that there are so many immigration histories, and layers of factors that impact one’s mental health.”
AHS offers integrative mental health services, and has community healing units. It focuses especially specifically on providing counselling, navigation and support for those who have experienced attacked or assaulted and those who have fears of being attacked or experiencing racist incidents.
“It is so important to mental health because we know that a lot of the traumas that people experiencing impact your health in well being. Isolation and being depressed and anxious can really be very harmful to your overall health,” Liou added.
Cross-Racial Solidarity
Community healing is a key factor in mental health to reduce hostility and violence against Asians during the pandemic. Asian Health Services also provides community healing initiatives, cultural rituals and healing, including: reporting trauma to mental health services, Yoga, Tai Chi, group walks, and cross racial solidarity.
Alana Sanchez-Prak, Stop the Hate Program Manager, Asian Health Services said: “If you suffer from any type of mental health crisis or even if you want someone to talk to you, you are definitely welcome here Asian Health Services. We not only offer services to counsel one by one but there are community and culture events.”
“There is no one way to healing and we want to make sure that we can provide you with any type of way that you need to feel better and to be best serve for yourself, your family and your community,” said Sanchez-Prak.
AHS clinics have expanded to San Leandro and San Lorenzo. The clinic locations can be checked here. https://asianhealthservices.org/locations/
During the pandemic, AHS provided 75,000+ vaccinations and 100,000+ screenings in Alameda County. Asian Health Services upholds the slogan “ADVOCACY AS A KEY PILLAR” and conducts regional campaigns such as training and education the safety of pedestrians at traffic intersections. It has established “California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative” to address issues on local, state and national levels. It also fought against the harmful Public Charge rule, making mobilizing and leveraging the Asian American and Pacific Islander voice through formation of One Nation AAPI Coalition: www.onenationaapi.com
“Auto burglary cases, robberies, shootings keep going on in Oakland and other places. Being stigmatized should not be rewarded. We must help to deescalate and even make relieve the fears and anxieties in the community,” Sanchez-Prak said.
“The basic problems are housing problems and raise rent in California. Lack of activities during the pandemic, unemployment problems and many other factors are the basic reasons for these ongoing challenges in the community. We have not fully recovered yet. We are pretending that the pandemic is over but everyone still struggling,” she added.
Mental Health Resources in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Oakland – Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants https://www.cerieastbay.org, (Burmese Language is available) (510) 444 -1671 Integrated Behavioral Health, (510)-735-3900
- San Francisco- Community Youth Center of San Francisco https://www.cycsf.org/program/ccsj/ (415) 550-1151
- Southeast Asian Development Center https://seadcenter.org (415) 771- 2600
- Community United Against Violence, www.cuav.org, (415) 333 – HELP,
- Filipino Advocates for Justice https://filipinos4justice.org/, (510)–465-9876,
- ASIAN Inc., https://www.asianinc.org/ , (415) 928- 5910
- Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center / San Francisco Community Health Center, https://sfcommunityhealth.org/, (415) 292 – 3400,
- Huckleberry Youth, https://www.huckleberryyouth.org/, (415) 668 – 2622
- Richmond Area Multi-Services Inc. https://ramsinc.org/contact/, (415) 668 – 5955
- Castro Valley – Mental Health for Association for Chinese Communities, https://www.mhacc-usa.org/, (800)-881- 8502
- Community Health for Asian Americans (Burmese, Rakhine language services are available) http:// www.chaaweb.org, (510 ) 835-2777,
The following organizations are not affiliated with the Stop the Hate program but are available in the Bay Area region
- One Myanmar Community
Location: 33535 Western Ave, Union City, CA 94587
Contact Info: (510) 936–0939; onemyanmarcommunity@gmail.com;
Services Offered: Burmese (Myanmar) Community and Cultural Center Project - Valley Health Center Milpitas
Location: 143 North Main Street, Milpitas, CA 95035
Contact Info: (408) 885–5000;
https://scvmc.scvh.org/hospitals-clinics/valley-health-center-milpitas
Services Offered: Behavioral and dental
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
