Youth, Culture and Mental Health Fund Background

When researching the existence of mental health programs for youth of diverse cultures in Vancouver, we found an absence of viable services. While counseling for certain areas such as eating disorders, self esteem, and body image is available at South Vancouver community centers, there is a lack of cultural specific therapy available for youth. Our research has found that there is significant dedication to South Asian youth gang violence; perhaps prompted by the considerable media attention it receives. However, while a small percentage of youth engage in gang violence, the vast majority does not, and we have found that more common mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and addiction are being overlooked.

In the South Asian community specifically, there is both a lack of awareness as well as a stigma surrounding mental health issues. Further, cultural disparity, language differences as well as generation and cultural gaps between youth and parents can act as barriers against seeking help on mental health problems. In addition, recent immigration is a risk factor for mental illness and the normalization of alcohol use among males increases the likelihood of substance abuse. Finally, gang violence and drug trafficking, further exacerbate mental health issues.

While not youth specific, Vancouver Community Mental Health Services has established a "Multicultural Mental Health Liaison Program" which aims to increase the accessibility and acceptability of community mental health services to the South Asian, Chinese, Latin American, Vietnamese, and First Nations communities, each provided with their own multicultural worker. The workers provide services in the areas of education, consultation, service brokerage and coordination, and direct clinical services. This mental health initiative is one of the few in the Lower Mainland that serves a wide variety of cultures. It is a program we can use as a model while at the same time, offering a more "youth specific" approach.

Our research led us to contacting individuals who have worked in mental health education. Baldev Mutta, who started the Punjabi Health Centre in Ontario, knew of no cultural mental health programs for youth in neither Ontario nor BC. Further, Dr. Nisha Dogra, a senior lecturer in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Leicester, knew of no developing services specifically for youth of South Asian, Vietnamese, or Chinese descent. She also informed us that although Australia has a high Vietnamese population, there were no specific addiction/mental health services available for Vietnamese youth in the continent. Thus, we can see that the lack of cultural-specific youth mental health services is not only in our own province of BC, but globally as well.