More than half of Hispanic young adults from ages 18 to 25 years old with serious mental illness may not receive treatment and that includes IU students, more specifically the Latinx community.
One big reason is the stigma behind mental health when seeking therapy, the community perceives it as a form of only crazy people should go to therapy. Lillian Casillas, director of La Casa/ Latino Cultural Center, talks about the taboo behind mental health in latinx families.
“No estoy loca, I am not crazy!” Casillas said. “Right away we go towards there is something wrong, there is something broken with me versus it is just like any kind of illness. If you have a cold, it doesn’t mean you are permanently broken, it just means there’s something you need to do to take care of yourself in order to get back into health.”
Many Latinx students, especially if they are first generation, face a lot of problems when it comes to homesickness. La Casa/ Latino Cultural Center offers programming to distract students from feeling alone through this challenge.
“You isolate yourself and that can create more challenges in your health,” Casillas said. “The simple act of not isolating yourself and interacting with other people that could help you realize you find connectiveness in other ways beyond just your family.”
Maria Nino talks about her experience with Mental health illness on IU campus.
Maria Nino is one of many students who have gone through mental health challenges at IU. Nino’s parents have not been as understanding about mental illness as she said she wished they were.
“I think in our community, it’s echale ganas and that’s it because they don’t really look at that kind of thing because it’s not really visible,” Nino said. “Because a lot of people don’t talk about it, they don’t know how to talk about it.
She said she feels like IU has a long way to go when it comes to helping students.
“I have gone to CAPS and two sessions feels very impersonal,” Nino said. “It’s like am I supposed to feel better after this? How do I feel? I think that is something we can work on.
Nino said she would not like to see anyone go through mental illness by themselves and being involved on campus is a way to help.
“My biggest piece of advice is to become involved,” Nino said. “Find things you like to do. Even if you don’t have friends to go with, that’s a good first step. Make sure there are resources on campus and use them and know how to find them. And be sure to just talk to somebody because I feel like going through some of those stuff alone is very necessary, but also knowing when to get help is a key part too.”
Lillian Casillas shares about what resources La Casa/ Latino Cultural Center offers to students at IU.
A piece of advice that Casillas gave to anyone dealing with mental illness is to rethink how we see mental health.
“We all go get a physical every year…having counseling or therapy is the same thing, it’s just a different kind of physical,” Casillas said. “It’s a wellness check.”
La Casa/ Latino Cultural Center also partnered with Counseling and Psychological Services, where they have two councelors working with their students. One counselor’s services is more long term and can be seen multiple times. Where as with the other counselor you do not need an appointment and you can just walk in whenever you need to talk to someone.
Casillas also shared other IU resources like the school of education, student care and resource center, and the health center.
