(PS3-B37) South Asian Parent Attitudes Towards Digital Mental Health Interventions

Background:

South Asian immigrants and their children are especially at risk to have mental health struggles due to high stress aspects of acclimatisation to westernised societies (Karasz, 2019). Digital mental health interventions are poised to reach underserved communities, like South Asians) as they may mitigate common barriers to treatment (e.g., cost, transportation, privacy issues). An additional potential barrier to accessing mental health treatment for children and adolescents is the need for parental consent (Reardon, 2017). It is therefore important to understand parents’ attitudes towards digital mental health interventions to inform the extent to which they could improve service to South Asian communities. Motivated by the lack of research on digital mental health interventions, South Asian communities, parent attitudes, and their intersection, the purpose of this study was to investigate South Asian parental attitudes towards online mental health interventions.

Methods:

Participants (N=6) were recruited through five different online Facebook parent groups based in Seattle, Washington. The asynchronous remote communities method for researching distributed populations was utilized to connect with participants (MacLeod et al., 2016). Participants self-identified as ‘mother figures’ (100%), and ‘South Asian’ (100%), with an average age of 48.5 with children’s ages ranging from 10 to 26. Two separate 60-minute focus group sessions were conducted over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions included: “Have you ever had any experiences with accessing mental health resources in the past?”, “Have you heard of, or had any experience with online mental health interventions?”, and “Do you think culture, background or family values have played a role in your attitudes towards mental health interventions?”

Results:

Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) yielded two themes: 1) Parents’ Experience of Stigma and 2) Breaking barriers for their children.  Participants said they had experienced symptoms of trauma, depression, and anxiety, but did not understand what they were. Negative views in the community (“paagal”, which means “crazy” in Hindi), uncertainty about where to get help, and the need to compete with, and project a false image of having a perfect work, family, and personal life all contributed to stigma.  While reluctant to seek treatment for themselves, parents were determined to become more educated in order to address mental health concerns with their children. They said the cost of treatment and not knowing how to find the right treatment were obstacles. Participants thought that digital interventions could address both these concerns but had concerns about privacy and whether it would be effective.

Conclusion:

Collecting information within South Asian communities begins to address a critical gap in research to understand the barriers to mental health care for children. These results show high levels of stigma among South Asian parents, the barriers to care that exist because of it, as well as parents’ openness to – and concerns about digital mental health interventions.