by Kay Curry
Northwest Asia Weekly
From left: Moderators Amy HyunPak, TAF’s Sherry Williams and ACRS’ Michael Byun discuss what advocacy for mental health and equal digital access looks like (screenshot by Kai Curry)
The latest Healthy Youth Survey, completed in part by the Washington Department of Health, found that 45 percent of 12th graders in Washington will feel sad or hopeless in the winter of 2021. If you dig into the numbers, it becomes even more concerning. 69% of Year 10 students said they were nervous or anxious, more than half couldn’t stop worrying, 18% planned suicide, 8% tried and 15% said they had no one to turn to (askhys.net) As students across the state prepare to return to school, it is important to navigate the challenges unique to the transition between a full-blown pandemic and a new normal, when both children and adults remain traumatized.
Asian Counseling and Referral Services (ACRS) and Comcast partner to advocate for mental health in our community, a large part of which is about communication. During the pandemic, that means doing it digitally.
“Many of our communities are still far behind in digital literacy,” said ACRS Executive Director Michael Byun. “For them, digital literacy is about dialing and using the phone to connect, so it’s really been a real unraveling and understanding of how big a gap many people in our community are facing during this time.” The ACRS shifted rapidly at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, so while there was a lot of troubling stuff this time around, Byun believes a lot is changing as well.
“There have been moments of great solutions when people acted quickly, communities acted quickly, families – with their resilience – acted quickly to get their seniors… figure out how to use Zoom so they can participate in Cloud Bamboo.”
During the ACRS virtual “lunch and learn” titled “Health in a Digital World” with Comcast and the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) on August 22, panelists shared what they offer to underserved communities They need help with the effort, whether it’s mental health services or technology.
The presentation, originally scheduled for May’s Mental Health Awareness Month, was postponed out of respect for the victims of the Texas mass shooting. As ACRS Director of Development Martha Reyes announced at the time, “We want to prioritize your personal space and wellness, not moving forward.” This behavior shows that some organizations are increasingly recognizing It is vital to take the time to sit down and understand people’s mental and emotional states. As it happens, it’s equally appropriate to move the activity to a few days before school starts.
The session kicked off with an informative video introducing a new digital literacy lab from ACRS called The Lift Zone, sponsored by Comcast.
“This will allow us to take our digital literacy curriculum to the next level,” commented ACRS staff. “This Lift Zone lab is the epitome of everything we’re trying to achieve with digital assets.” Why is digital equity and digital access important? It’s fundamentally about connections and relationships, which is why it’s inextricably linked to mental health. For young people, using digital forms of communication may be the best or only way to talk to them.
“It’s really important to be more open to this form of engagement with youth,” said ACRS youth development director Leslie Stone. “For example, for our QOLOR program (an LGBTQ youth program), our youth share with us that they would like to communicate on a certain platform and they feel their identities are protected because many of our youth are not connected to their families …ask our young people what they want, what they need … listen to them and be creative.” Stone added: “It’s really challenging to reach them now.”
Digital access is one step. The next step is to feel comfortable enough to seek help first. When it comes to mental health, the stigma still exists.
“One of the biggest challenges…not just for young people, but for a lot of people, is…the willingness to say, yes, I want to talk to someone,” said Dillon Nishimoto, ACRS Youth Clinical Manager. “At ACRS, we recognize that a lot of us come from more interdependent communities, and that’s a force we’re trying to build, and we’re all doing it together… It’s scary to share some vulnerabilities… It does take a little leap of faith.”
Seeking support is critical not only to the communities an organization serves, but also within the organization, where employees are experiencing “second-hand trauma,” as Byun points out.
Sherry Williams, TAF’s executive director of operations, asked employees to meet with her one-on-one. She reminded employees (and all of us) that we are entitled to a mental health day and that we should focus on self-care and staying connected.
“When everything falls apart, if you don’t have a relationship, you have nothing.” At the start of the pandemic, Williams shared, “The first thing to do is check in and make sure people are okay.” She and her staff Connect with each other, with students and with parents, “to make sure…their health and mental health are good.”
Lockdowns during the pandemic have disrupted children’s development.
“There was a significant social delay in every age group, the really critical socialization was over two years, and we had to learn how to deal with that,” Nishimoto said. The key to ACRS and TAF is their focus on the BIPOC community. TAF supports K-12 students and teachers and works to ensure students see teachers like them.
“We know that children do better when they have someone who looks like them teaching them that they understand who they are, where they come from and what their culture is.” ACRS also provides this Cultural works, whether through culture-specific meals or classes. “Our institutions and departments have diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds,” shared Nishimoto. “Many young people and families prefer to work with people they can connect with on that level.”
At the end of the luncheon, parents asked how best to serve their children. One participant shared that her college-going daughter had a nervous breakdown and was put in a “mental ward” by the university. This action violated several key points of the meeting, such as that a person should not be forced into a mental health option that is not ready and that a safe environment must first exist before recovery can take place.
“They just wanted to give her medication, counseling, and they didn’t understand what I meant. I didn’t feel like I had a voice,” the mother said. The family took their daughter out and took her home. “I’m from a Korean background. We’ll just love her…and give her this safe space to grow.”
Luncheon Recommended Resources:
acrs.org
tech access.org
Kay can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
