Anti-Asian rhetoric and incidents have been on the rise in recent years, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
These types of events reinforce trauma and fear within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and have profound effects on mental and physical health, says Gilbert Gee, PhD, professor in the Department. of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
“People’s reports of discrimination and unfair treatment have been linked to major depressive disorders, clinical anxiety disorders and mood disorders,” Dr. Gee says. “It takes a pretty large toll on people’s mental health.”
The original article is published on UCLA Health.
