SAN FRANCISCO -- A recent attempted suicide by a Chinese American high school student and two apparent murder suicide attempts involving Chinese Americans have raised concerns among community groups. They feel that more needs to be done to dissolve the stigma in the community surrounding seeking mental health treatment. Additionally, many immigrants may be cut off from help due to language barriers.
On Sept. 13, a Chinese American 12th grader at Balboa High school attempted suicide by jumping from a 3rd floor building. Patricia Gray, the school's principal, refused to identify the student citing privacy concerns. She did release a statement to “continue to pay attention to all students' emotional and educational well being." This marked the first time in Balboa High's 77 years, and in the entire history of the school district, a student had attempted to jump from a school building. It is rumored that academic pressure caused the student to attempt suicide.
Norman Yee, former executive director of the Wu Yee Child Care Center, said while he was not aware of the details of this case, based on his experience, Asian students' suicide rate is higher than other races. The main reason is Asian parents tend to put excessive pressure on their children when it comes to their academic performance.
He said therefore school counselors play an important role. However, there is always a shortage of them, making it difficult to detect warning signs. “This is not a first time a student has attempted suicide. All teachers, counselors and parents ought to pay critical attention to this issue,” Yee said.
Mrs. Shiu, a parent, acknowledged Chinese parents tend to be overly concerned with their children’s academic results and place added pressure. But she believed that for parents and children, the most important thing is communication and compassion. If the child’s academic performance is below expectations, more pressure will not bring improvement. She added the high school years are perhaps the most difficult time for children and parents.
This case has cast attention on whether or not Chinese parents put too much pressure on their children to excel academically. Nancy Lim Yee, a mental health worker at the Chinatown Child Development Center’s children mental health project, said Chinese families tend to use academic performance as a measuring stick for their children’s future success. Additionally, new immigrant parents often have to work long hours, and are not able to monitor and care for their children appropriately. Many Chinese parents neglect to notice their children’s emotional changes and condition of their mental health.
Yee added that her center counsels more than 300 students, 75 to 80 percent of them are from Chinese families. Often these students exhibit problems related to their overall attitude. Not only do these students not listen to their parents, they don’t listen to their teachers in school, she said.
Additionally, many Chinese families do not recognize the importance of mental health, giving attention only to physical health. When parents neglect their children’s emotional needs, it may lead to tragedy. Yee analyzed before this student’s attempted suicide, there might have been warning signs, but the parent might have been too busy to recognize them. She added the greatest challenge of her organization is to educate the parents and to assist them in understanding their children and recognize their needs.
Just the day before, Chinese newspapers reported on the tragic death of a newborn baby allegedly killed by his mother who also tried to kill herself.
On Sept. 11, Hui Zhu, a West Oakland resident, locked herself and her 3-month old baby boy Jason Sito in her bedroom. The baby died of carbon-monoxide poisoning, and Zhu was transferred to the hospital where she was in serious condition.
The 42-year-old woman married Shi Sito in China and immigrated to the United States in 1992. After 12 years, she gave birth to the couple’s first child, Jason, on June 8th. About ten days after she gave birth, Zhu suffered from post-partum depression. She had attempted suicide twice before but never tried to harm her baby.
Although Zhu and Sito immigrated from China to Oakland over 10 years ago, according to their neighbors, the two didn’t speak English. And due to language barriers, their neighbors weren’t able to communicate and help them.
Betty Hong, executive director of the Oakland Asian American Community Mental Health services, said Zhu was a client of her organization, but did not continue counseling services. Because of language barriers, it was hard for Zhu to seek help, Hong said. The limited English proficiency might have created a feeling of cultural inferiority, which strains mental health. This is a common situation among Asian immigrants she said.
Alameda county Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker joined Asian American Mental Health in expressing their sadness over this tragedy and urged Asian Americans to pay attention to mental health care and seek treatment if needed.
Lai-Bitker said Asians often are reluctant to open themselves up to discuss their mental health. Families often try to avoid the subject, even deny their own mental health problems, thereby ignoring important warning signs. Support from family members is a key component for the patient suffering from depression. In addition the one who is suffering must also be willing to seek help and have the courage to recognize their problem.
Lai-Bitker stressed that the Zhu case has underlined the importance of raising public awareness about depression in the community to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
Betty Hong said often Asian Americans also have difficulties because they are often not able to access information in their own language on where to receive care, how they will pay for it as well as childcare options. She stressed her organization provides mental health care in 14 different Asian languages.
Hong said for Zhu income was also a factor. She resided in West Oakland, which is a poor neighborhood. Without health insurance, and unaware of how to apply for Medi-Cal, she was cut off from help.
She added 1 out of 5 Americans suffer from mental health diseases. Southeast Asian immigrants or refugees have a higher rate because of their experiences of war and having to adapt to new environments and also poverty.
In another related story, Charles Loo, 50, was arrested by San Mateo police after they found him covered with blood and hiding behind bushes in the Montara state beach and recreation area on Sept. 18. The police found the dead body of his son, Benson, nearby. Loo is suspected of attempting a murder-suicide.
Charles Loo immigrated from Singapore several years ago and his wife is from Taiwan. Loo was a wealthy businessman with two sons. Benson, 17, was the oldest child.
In subsequent court appearances, Loo’s wife and young son were not present. Only his two nephews from Singapore were in attendance but they declined to comment on the case.