Support for East and Southeast Asian community members

"The purpose of this resource is to bring awareness to the existence of eating disorders and disordered eating in East Asian and Southeast Asian communities in Canada. When the topics of mental health and mental illness can already feel so difficult to talk about with our loved ones, it can be even more discouraging when the resources that you can find are geared towards specific groups that you are not a part of... people should not feel like they are underrepresented in certain areas of healthcare, including eating disorders and disordered eating services. We want to encourage conversations about eating disorders and disordered eating that explore the intersectionality of race, culture, and mental health." 

Download the full resource here.

Consultant-content writers:  Katheryn Iu and Melissa Yang

Consultant:  Mengran Xu

Reviewers:  Syriah Bailey and Tiffany Bondoc

_{Edited by the NEDIC team, published 2023}

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Additional resources and support for East and Southeast Asian community members

Contributed by Katheryn Iu and Melissa Yang

We recognize how underdeveloped mental health resources and programming for East and Southeast Asian communities can be. Accessing eating disorder treatment can be extremely expensive and admission processes can be difficult. Despite this, we wanted to highlight and honour the amazing foundations and organizations fighting to break the stigma and promote accessibility for East and Southeast Asian communities: 

Mental health services 

British Columbia

• Canadian Mental Health Association - Vancouver-Fraser Branch maintains a Chinese mental health service resource list
• SUCCESS Chinese Helpline provides support to Chinese Canadians who experience difficulties due to language and cultural barriers, and fear of social stigma. while demonstrating cultural sensitivity towards diverse values and beliefs
• Cantonese Helpline: 604-270-8233
• Mandarin HelpLine: 604-270-8222
• Here to Help BC (Chinese) is a project of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Substance Use Information

Ontario

• Hong Fook Mental Health Association provides a continuum of mental health services to Toronto and York region residents that cover the spectrum from “promoting wellness” to “managing illness” in Cambodian, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, Vietnamese, and English
  
  

Helpfinding resources

• The Asian Mental Health Collective is an organisation based in the United States that connects Asian American and Pacific Islander mental health providers with clients in a private Facebook group; view their Asian Canadian Therapy Directory here
• The Project Lotus is a youth-led organisation based in the United States that is working to challenge the model minority myth while empowering and educating the Asian American community on the importance of mental health
• South Asian Therapists database
• Detox Local has an extensive list of mental health and substance use resources specifically for the American Asian and Pacific Islander communities
  
  

Cultural resources

• Vancouver Chinatown Foundation
• Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto
• Chinese Cultural Centre of Vancouver
• Asian Heritage Society of Manitoba
  
  

Contributed by NEDIC

General information

• Eating Disorders in Australia is a booklet from the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (Australia) that provides an overview of eating disorder diagnoses, warning signs, risk factors, impacts and complications, common comorbidities, levels of treatment, and evidence-based therapies; it is also available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese

Information for family members

• NEDIC Guide for Family (also available in Chinese and Tagalog)