Unmet Mental Health Care Needs among Asian Americans 10⁻11 Years After Exposure to the World Trade Center Attack.

This study investigated the prevalence of unmet mental health care needs (UMHCN) and their associated factors among 2344 Asian Americans directly exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) attack 10-11 years afterwards. Given the pervasive underutilization of mental health services among Asians, their subjective evaluation of unmet needs could provide more nuanced information on disparities of service. We used the WTC Health Registry data and found that 12% of Asian Americans indicated UMHCN: 69% attributing it to attitudinal barriers, 36% to cost barriers, and 29% to access barriers.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in the short and medium term following the World Trade Center attack among Asian Americans.

This study investigated patterns of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their predictors among 2,431 Asian American and 31,455 non-Hispanic White World Trade Center (WTC) Registry participants 2-3 years and 5-6 years after the WTC attack. Participants were divided into four PTSD pattern groups: resilient, remitted, delayed onset, and chronic. Asians had a lower proportion in the resilient group (76.

Factors Related to the Probable PTSD after the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack among Asian Americans.

Despite the fact that Asians constituted a sizeable proportion of those exposed to the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001 due to its proximity to Chinatown and many South Asians working in the nearby buildings, no study had focused on examining the mental health impact of the attack in this group. Based on data collected by the World Trade Center Health Registry from a sample of 4721 Asians 2-3 years after the disaster, this study provides a baseline investigation for the prevalence and the risk and protective factors for PTSD among Asian Americans directly exposed to the attack and compared this population against 42,862 non-Hispanic Whites. We found that Asians had a higher prevalence of PTSD compared to Whites (14.

Culture- and Immigration-Related Stress Faced by Chinese American Families with a Patient Having Schizophrenia.

The impact of culture and immigration on the experience of Chinese American families with a member having schizophrenia is explored within the frameworks of family systems and stress and coping. This qualitative study was conducted within an intervention study of family psychoeducation using therapists' session notes from 103 family sessions and 13 relatives' group sessions from nine patients and 19 relatives. The high stigma attached to mental illness leading to social isolation, and families' devotion to caregiving exacerbated caregiver burden.

How symptom manifestations affect help seeking for mental health problems among Chinese Americans.

This study aims to examine how help-seeking behaviors of Chinese Americans are associated with the types of mental disorder, the tendency to somatize symptoms, social disruptiveness of symptoms, and comorbidity. Based on data from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study, we examined 246 Chinese Americans with a diagnosable major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, or somatoform disorder, using hierarchical logistic regression analyses. Compared with respondents with somatoform disorder, those with anxiety or depressive disorder were 94% and 87% less likely to seek professional help.

Outcomes of recognizing depressed Chinese American patients in primary care.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of identifying Chinese American patients as having major depressive disorder (MDD) to their primary care physicians (PCPs) on the latter's attention given to the treatment of depression.

Methodology: Forty Chinese American patients from a primary care clinic were identified as having major depressive disorder (MDD), and their primary care physicians (PCPs) were notified of the diagnosis by letter. Three months later, medical records of subjects in the study were reviewed to see if their PCPs had intervened through referral and/or initiated treatment of depression.

Integrating psychiatry and primary care improves acceptability to mental health services among Chinese Americans.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether integrating psychiatry and primary healthcare improves referral to and treatment acceptability of mental health services among Chinese Americans. The "Bridge Project," a program to enhance collaboration between primary care and mental health services for low-income Chinese immigrants was implemented at South Cove Community Health Center in Boston. The project consisted of conducting training seminars to primary care physicians to enhance recognition of common mental disorders, using a primary care nurse as the "bridge" to facilitate referrals to the Behavioral Health Department of the same facility, and co-locating a psychiatrist in the primary care clinic to provide onsite evaluation and treatment.