Amanda SparksThrough storytelling, University of Alberta nursing professor Samantha Louie-Poon is researching anti-Asian racism and youth mental health.
Louie-Poon was motivated to research East Asian experiences within the mental health-care system through a “collection of [their] personal professional experiences and also experiences as a community member and community advocate.”
In their recent study, Louie-Poon conducted individual interviews with East Asian parents living in Canada about their stories, as well as their children’s, and ideas of what should be done to ensure adequate care in the health-care system.
They found that most of their responses came from generations of knowledge within the community and aligned with community members’ perspectives. These findings add an empirical evidence base to this area of research, Louie-Poon said.
“These knowledges and wisdoms have been ancestral knowledges and knowledges within the East Asian community that has been passed down for a very long time.”
Louie-Poon seeks to amplify East Asian voices in mental health-care
One of the themes that came from the study was “de-centring whiteness within the process of the mental health-care system.”
“When resources are not developed from their truth and realities and understanding their contextual situations, it actually then creates a space where they may have to actually re-explain their own narratives and their own realities and truths, which can be very re-traumatizing for East Asian populations.”
Louie-Poon’s findings highlighted the importance of centring East Asian parents’ perspectives in mental health-care development and developing mental health tools from an “East Asian standpoint.”
“This study really provides a platform and a way to have more dialogue in terms of dismantling structural violence within the health-care system and beyond.”
It focuses on expanding this dialogue beyond the health-care system through East Asian counter-spaces to ensure East Asian perspectives are at the forefront of East-Asian mental health.
These counter-spaces, as described by Louie-Poon, can foster a sense of safety crucial to producing counter-narratives within the mental health-care system.
“Counter-narratives are really important to really uncover the truths of East Asian histories, realities, and context.”
Combatting racism through counter-spaces
Additionally, Louie-Poon emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for meaningful community engagement.
“If we aren’t focused on creating those safer environments for engaging community members or partnering with community members, it actually may reinforce harmful stereotypes or it puts East Asian populations within a situation that can be re-traumatizing.”
This study is embedded in Louie-Poon’s research program Reimagining Asian Well-Being (RAW), which uses community building, storytelling, and advocacy to advance the well-being of Asian youth.
“I really wanted to develop a space where people from all walks of life can come together in a community to build future generations up and also have this legacy where Asian youth and families can thrive together based off of shared visions and knowledge and wisdom that we can create together.”
