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When Merafe Endalew, a second-year Ohio State University sociology student, started seeing a therapist a few years ago, she said her mother opposed her openly talking about mental health because of the associated stigma in their Ethiopian American community.
“We’re so separated from the topic of mental health that we don’t even have words for certain things,” said Endalew, who moved with her family from a refugee camp in Kenya to Ohio when she was 7.
Nisha Dhaurali, a senior at Cristo Rey Columbus High School, said they had similar experiences trying to talk about mental health with their parents — who came to the U.S. as Bhutanese Nepali refugees.
“I was like, ‘(My parents are) probably not feeling the same thing I’m feeling because they don’t talk about it,’” Dhaurali said. “It was only in high school that we had … counselors that I could go to talk to.”
The unique mental health challenges young people from immigrant and refugee communities face — as well as solutions — were the focus of an event held last weekend in Greater Columbus.
Panelists and speakers at the “Resilient Minds” conference Saturday in Reynoldsburg discussed how the quest for identity, familial responsibilities, intergenerational trauma and cultural stigma can place extra stresses on new American youth. Around 100 students, parents and health professionals from Asian, African and Latin American backgrounds attended the event. A team of young volunteers organized the program, which the National Alliance on Mental Illness; Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County; and several local nonprofits sponsored.
“Growing up in families where resilience is a way of life can come with an extra set of challenges, expectations and responsibilities … and that requires an extra set of mental resilience,” said Dr. Taru Saigal, an Indian American physician who leads the language-concordant care program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Franklin County’s foreign-born population has grown from around 9% in 2005 to nearly 13% in 2021 — a figure that does not include children born in the U.S. Large Somali and Bhutanese Nepali refugee communities call Greater Columbus home, as well as significant populations from Latin America, South Asia, East and West Africa.
Mental health is often a taboo subject among these communities but has real-world consequences, according to the conference’s speakers. One study from 2013 found the suicide rate among the U.S. Bhutanese Nepali refugee community was roughly double the national average.
Unique challenges
Youth from all backgrounds face pressures related to academics, body image, social media, gun violence and gender expression. New American youth often face all of these stressors — and more, according to conference participants.
“Many students are tackling the role of finding their place in this new community, while also finding an identity of their own — and that can definitely be a struggle,” said Shreejana Bastola, a second-year OSU neuroscience major from Reynoldsburg’s Bhutanese Nepali community.
Regina Loayza, 21, whose family immigrated to Columbus from Peru, said that from a young age, she was responsible for translating documents for her parents, acting as a cultural broker between them and American society.
“Feeling like I have to be the best in school because I’m not only representing myself but my family, and I have to make their efforts to come here worth it — that … gave me a lot of performance anxiety,” she said.
Refugee parents can also unintentionally transfer trauma from conflict, war or the resettlement process to their children, Saigal said.
“It can impact how you interact with your children. It can impact the emotional bonding you have with them,” she said.
Overcoming stigma to seek help
Youth participants said that talking with their parents about mental health can be difficult.
“Mental illness is a very mystified subject” among the older Ethiopian generation, Endalew said. “They see it as more of a mystic thing, as something taking over you.”
Dr. Nipen Katel, a Bhutanese-Nepali physician with Mount Carmel Medical Group in New Albany, said his older refugee patients often have difficulty describing their emotions. Instead, their anxiety or depression manifests as physical symptoms like burning sensations in the feet or hands, or stomach pain, he said.
“We must advocate for increased access to mental health services tailored to the needs of the community. This includes offering services in Nepali or the native language, and ensuring that our health care providers are culturally competent,” said Katel.
Lila Chamlagai, a doctorate student in public health at Brown University, emphasized the importance of getting more community members involved in spreading mental-health awareness.
Saigal agreed that reducing stigma around mental health is essential.
“The most heartwarming part of my clinical practice is when I see youth coming to my clinic, sometimes with their parents, and sometimes just by themselves, to talk about their health,” she said.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, you can reach Ohio’s 24/7 Crisis Text Line by texting 4HOPE to 741741 or call the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-221-5445 or the Teen Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-294-3300. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988 or chat at988lifeline.org.
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
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