Josie Huang covers Asian American communities for the LAist and KPCC newsroom.
When someone goes through a mental health crisis, their loved ones are thrown into a maze of urgent, high-stakes decisions.For those in L.A.’s large Chinese immigrant community with limited English, helping a loved one can be especially challenging and isolating.
Starting Monday, a new Mandarin-language family support group in the San Gabriel Valley aims to provide a much-needed resource, coordinated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in L.A. County.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.Monthly meetings will be at the Holiday Inn in El Monte, held at night to accommodate people’s work schedules, and open to anyone from the region. “For recent immigrants, but also even long-term residents who just aren't comfortable communicating in English the way they are in their native language, it just made such sense for us to do it,” said Richard Tom, president of the Years in the making, the support group happens to be rolling out at a time of heightened anxiety for immigrant communities amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Tom said providing support in Mandarin could help lower barriers for those who might hesitate to seek help.“Obviously, right now, with immigration an issue, there is also a sensitivity to access in-language for folks who might otherwise be frightened of going to places where they're going to perhaps be misunderstood,” he said.California has a paid leave program for self-employed workers. But few are using it The state has a program for self-employed workers and small business owners, but workers don’t always know to opt in.Tom said the support group not only removes the language hurdles but also recognizes the cultural stigma many participants may be navigating. “There’s sort of what you expect in a lot of cultures, which is sort of an embarrassment and shame associated with having someone who has a mental health issue,” Tom said. Organizers say that despite L.A.’s large Chinese-speaking population, no consistent, in-language family support group has existed locally in recent years. Seven locals were trained by a Bay Area facilitator Elaine Peng to lead a Chinese-language support group in the San Gabriel Valley.One of the biggest obstacles has been finding Chinese-speaking family members and friends able to go through the two-day-long facilitator training and commit to leading the support group indefinitely — all the while caring for someone struggling with mental illness. At the same time, the concept of peer support — turning to others with lived experience rather than professionals — is still unfamiliar in many Chinese immigrant communities, said Nancy Eng, a NAMI SGV board member. But, “one of the reasons that the support group is so great is it gives a visual and also the sense when you're together in the room, the headaches that you’re dealing with — the exhaustion, the frustration — you're not alone,” Eng said.The Chinese-language program is launching with seven facilitators, all of whom have personal experience supporting a loved one with mental illness. Support groups can normalize the idea of seeking professional help, coordinators say, acting as a bridge to therapists or psychiatrists for both the person experiencing crisis, as well as for their loved ones. Fellow members can also share their experiences with painful decisions such as seeking involuntary treatment or watching a loved one enter the criminal justice system.In a support group, Tom said, families hear something they rarely hear elsewhere: that they are doing the best they can.Mary YanYan Chan, who is coordinating the Chinese language program, said her own experience in a support group has helped her deal with a sister with untreated bipolar disorder. “I'm just kind of following the steps, and in the interim, I'm going to help others behind me, to bring them forward, because this is really community work,” Chan said. A grant from Cedars-Sinai is helping to support the initial rollout through the summer. But organizers say its future will depend on participation and securing a long-term space, hopefully with a community organization.You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead . Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community. Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive from readers like you will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.Climate & Environment
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