Mental Health and Older
Adults: Challenges Faced by Iranian and Other Immigrant Families
Taher Zandi
State University of New York
Many Iranian immigrants have experienced traumatic
circumstances based on lack of knowledge of the host country's
unspoken rules and regulations. The immediate draw back of such
experience is the creation of a perception of loss of control and
confidence. This problem is exaggerated by absence of support structures.
An Iranian family that moves away from home changes its outlook
on life, but seldom changes its ties with the extended family back
in Iran . Suitcases of gifts that go back with people to Iran are
a good example of extended family ties that are not severed. This
dualistic family lifestyle is unfulfilled as the individual struggles
to fill in the gaps created by their immigration.
Many immigrants
have difficulty acculturating to their new environments in the
U.S. , which is exacerbated by experiences with prejudice and discrimination
. Acculturation, the process through which immigrants adapt to
the culture and institutional systems of their new country, transcends
all aspects of their lives (e.g., school, work, and community life).
Iranian families, being proud of their backgrounds, are therefore
faced with an inevitable superficial acceptance of the new lifestyle.
However, in private, they still practice their own ways of life
and are cut in the dualism of the new world vs. their identity.
To support their families, immigrants are often forced to take
jobs in manual labor, even though they may have the training and
education for professional jobs. Thus, many immigrants cannot sustain
their former economic and social status, which can lead to psychological
distress.
Learning and academic success can be challenging for
children and adolescents when the curriculum and teaching methods
of the U.S. differ from those in their native country. Also, many
immigrant youth whose parents are migrant farm laborers often leave
school to join their parents in the workforce, causing frequent
disruption in their education and potential emotional and behavioral
problems.
Immigrants may feel torn about where to draw the line
between fitting into American society and into their own ethnic
community, and preserving their original way of life. Children
and adolescents often acculturate more quickly than their parents,
which can lead to significant family conflicts and lack of family
cohesion. Feelings of isolation often emerge with family conflict
and the struggle to develop a tight social network.
Exposure to
traumatic conditions, coupled with difficulties in acculturation,
can lead to severe and long-lasting psychological and behavioral
problems, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress
disorder, and a high risk for suicide . Access to quality culturally
and linguistically appropriate mental health services is critical
for immigrant populations. Immigrants face many barriers to receiving
mental healthcare services including financial difficulties, lack
of culturally- and linguistically-appropriate services, and mistrust
of mental health providers. The rate of uninsured for foreign-born
children under the age of 18 is 36.8 percent, more than triple
the rates for U.S. citizen children. Additionally, the Iranian
families have acquired most of their mental health related problems
due to the loss of “home land”. Such phenomenon
is usually not understood by the mental health providers whose
aim is to make adjustment easier to the new world
The most comon reaction to the adjustment processes among the immigrant families include
• Any and all stressors are catastrophic
• Multiple input from multiple resources that are inadequate.
• Decline in perception of control: lack mastery
• Losses, family members problems, jobs, status, language
Among the most common consequences of such adjustment difficulties are:
• Depression: Major depression:
• Signs: Loss of interest, decline in motivation, sleep cycle, weight changes, etc
• Not changes by variation in the environment
• Dysthymic Disorders
• Signs: More culturally affected, chronic pattern of depression that improves upon changes in environment.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder: Iranian Cycle
The individual who begins suffering from a chronic depression soon affects his/her entire family network and becomes the main focus of the family. In such instances, since the new and the older generation do have the same senses of loss, they begin to drift away from one another and this sets the stage for nuclear family meltdown.
