TCM Practitioners for Chinese with Mental Health

 

   

To promote the fact that mental health is affected by many things, including migration to New Zealand, a partnership between the Mental Health Foundation and the health promoters must be established. A public health education programme advertising the many and varied facets of mental illness must be demonstrated to the population as a whole, so as to reduce discrimination and stigmatization and increase acknowledgement that migration may have adverse effects on mental health. It is envisaged that a television media campaign will be utilized to do this. Examples of televised advertisements could be a series showing an ordinary Chinese migrant speaking in English with Chinese subtitles explaining the mental health issues that he or she dealt with after arriving in New Zealand. This would show that many migrants experience mental illness and that it is not something that should be shameful. The way in which this person overcame their mental health problems could also be documented to demonstrate that it is possible to address these issues and potential ways of doing so. This sort of public health education campaign would allow the population as a whole to understand how migration can affect mental health and that it is something that the general population should be aware of.

To educate the Chinese community more specifically, a more targeted approach should be taken. Although many Chinese migrants are proficient in English, it cannot be assumed that it is universally understood. Therefore, the use of the Chinese language, especially via written media, is vitally important.  There are several factors which must be considered including, the de-stigmatization of mental illness by acknowledging that it is normal,  addressing that it is not something to be ashamed of, and also that there are services available.

Methods that health promoters could utilize to disseminate educational material is diverse. For example, posters and print advertisements could be displayed in Asian supermarkets, Chinese newspapers, churches, temples and cinemas.  Print advertisements could explain the importance of mental health, the fact that migration can affect mental health adversely and that there are services available to help. This would be a series of many different advertisements with contact details for mental health services catering to Chinese people in New Zealand included.  It is hoped that these advertisements would bring to the fore, the issue of mental health within the Chinese community, so that a dialogue can be started.  A major issue for mental health in the Chinese community is social stigma, and the tendency for those in need to remain silent.  For health promotion in church and temple, it is especially important to engage leaders as these individuals are respected by their community and can convey the message to a large segment of the community. They must be shown the importance of mental health so that they can be a source of support to congregation and community members. Individuals must feel safe to reach out to community leaders and be confident that that these community leaders are able to help them.

To ensure adequate community mental health services. The health promoters will identify the mental health organizations available, finding where these organizations are located and what kinds of services they provide. These services will then be evaluated to determine if they feel that they require further resources to meet the needs of the community. Fundamentally, the health promoters will be assessing the current service provision available to the community. This goal being to provide the details of relevant services to community members and encourage them to seek assistance. The approach taken here is a networking approach whereby the resources of several organizations are exchanged so each can benefit independently. In this case, the community service providers are exchanging information with health promoters to better understand the community and to assist in the broader goal of addressing mental health issues.  

  

Improving the mental health of the Chinese community in New Zealand through reducing stigma, and building the capacity of community organizations.  Mental health was identified as key determinant of health for the community as it affects whole families, as well as ability to work, and function within society.  Stigma is a major problem, both through racism and culture, thus the key goal of improving awareness of mental health.  Current mental health services were assessed to be inadequate and inappropriate for the Chinese community, thus it was determined that a collaborative policy network could identify ways to improve available services.  This is because the Chinese community has been underserved by mental health services, and engaging all stakeholders to work together on the problem is a sustainable method of addressing the communities' needs.

 The role of Traditional Chinese Medicine must be included in the stock take of community services, as many people rely on these practitioners to provide holistic services including mental health.  Having western mental health providers communicate with Chinese Medicine Practitioners could help share information and improve cultural competency of western providers, particularly for the Chinese community.