Resources for the Filipino/a/x Community

Filipinos across the globe have a general hesitancy and unfavorable attitude towards formal help-seeking support despite high rates of physical and mental health distress. They generally minimize their needs or stay silent, and prefer to seek support from close family and friends. Research has found that common barriers to seeking services amongst Filipinos living in the Philippines include financial constraints and inaccessibility of services, whereas overseas Filipinos were discouraged by immigration status, lack of health insurance, language difficulty, experience of discrimination and lack of acculturation to their host culture.

Filipinos’ sense of resilience and self-reliance, and mental health stigma are the primary barriers for Filipinos, regardless of residence, in seeking mental health support and community services. Members of this community are concerned with ‘hiya’ or sense of shame and beliefs that mental illness is unacceptable. They utilize special mental health care only as the last resort, when problems become severe, when they have positive influence from their social support, when they have financial capacity, and when they have previous positive experience in formal help.

I’ve curated a list of community organizations in California whose ethos and services are aimed at reducing mental health stigma in the Filipino/a/x diaspora while empowering their fellow kababayans/fellow Pilipinos to preserve their health and culture through counseling, education and social connections.