In regions of prolonged strife due to war, political uprisings or humanitarian crisis inhabitants often find themselves faced with both physically debilitating conditions as well as mentally destabilizing environments.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that nearly five million of the fifty million refugees displaced around the world suffer from a mental illness largely due to traumatic events in their homeland.
Because these traumatic events have a wide range and due to cultural and language barriers that may occur upon a refugee entering the United States, the Center for Disease Control laid out specific guidelines on dealing with refugees who may be suffering from some type of mental illness.
Although therapists and medication are provided through the U.S. health care system for those in need of the services, the refugee and even the regular immigrant population seeking a more stable environment in the United States often find cultural stigmas standing between them and seeking the care.
Razia Kusi, a social worker, found that many immigrants, refugees or otherwise, visited the free clinic she volunteered at complaining of minor issues that would eventually uncover larger concerns.
“They would go in for more systemic issues like headaches, but as they would talk to the physician they would realize there was an underlining mental health issue that they needed to deal with,” she said.
She found that those who were religiously minded sometimes displayed an additional hesitation to seeking her therapy.
“There is kind of a stigma about it that [the mental health issue] is perhaps because they’re not strong enough in their Iman, their faith.” said Kusi.
Kusi has seen a variety of mental health issues, one of the most common being depression stemming from family issues and cultural expectations. In some cases she said, patients have forgone treatment entirely in fear of the potential shame it might bring to their family.
Kusi spoke of one case where a Muslim family decided against seeking mental health care for an alcoholic family member because the consumption of alcohol in Islam is forbidden and therefore exposing the issue might lead to judgement by the community. Instead, the member lived as an alcoholic and the family was forced to deal with the issue without hope of a medical solution.
“[They felt that] even to voice it felt so shameful,” said Kusi.
Religion and culture adds an additional dynamic to the mental health treatment process. However, said Kusi, while people focus on what is forbidden or taboo, they may overlook the aspects of mercy and forgiveness.
“[People] do not understand the compassion piece [of religion] and knowing that we are all human and we are struggling and that we’re not going to do it perfectly,” she said.
While she feels as though mental health treatment may still be taboo in the American Muslim community, Kusi is confident that things are moving in the right direction.
“I think slowly the community is starting to talk a little more about it being okay to seek help and trying to find that [help],” she said. “The most influence is friend to friend or someone in the family saying that ‘I think we need to do something, get some health.’”
Kusi, who works extensively with CHAI, Counslers Helping South Asians, feels that the stress of being part of the “model minority” also plays a distinct role in the mental health of the Asian Muslim community in particular.
Not only are there social expectations regarding higher education, professional degrees, and status from being part of a minority group that is often stereotyped as highly educated and successful but these expectations are then compounded by post 9-11 attention on the American Muslim, said Kusi.
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