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When east meets west : older Chinese immigrants' perceptions and experiences of mental health and mental illness Zhang, Danni

Abstract

Numerous studies have found that older Chinese immigrants are one of the least likely groups of people to engage in help-seeking for their mental health. This is primarily due to language barriers, lack of knowledge of the healthcare system, cultural stigma surrounding mental health, and mental health literacy (Chao et al., 2020; Mao et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2014). Although many Canadian quantitative studies have investigated the impacts of these barriers, little is known about older Chinese immigrants’ perceptions and experiences of mental health and illness. Seeking to address these gaps and drawing on symbolic interactionism as my theoretical framework, my study investigated the meanings that older Chinese immigrants attributed to mental health and illness as well as to the process of immigration. I conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 10 older Chinese immigrants. The five men and five women ranged in age from 65 to 85 years and had immigrated to Canada after 2010. Each participant was interviewed once in Mandarin for an average of one hour and a total of 9.5 hours. The data were audio-coded and thematically analyzed, resulting in the identification of three keyways that my participants perceived and experienced mental health and illness. The first theme, mental health as an emotional and behavioural continuum, encompassed the feelings and behaviours my participants associated with good and poor mental health, and with mental illness. The second theme, mental health as the product of individual effort, included seven strategies that my participants identified as being essential for fostering mental health. The final theme referred to my participants’ reflections on the positive and negative impacts of acculturation on their mental health during and after the process of immigration. My findings provide insight into the meanings that older Chinese immigrants attribute to mental health and mental illness and the challenges they experience in fostering the same. Therefore, my study findings are important for policy makers and health and social service professionals who work with older Chinese immigrants and may help to expand mental health literacy programs, mental health support, translation services, and English language classes.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International