By Hang Ngo, Psy.D. I am about to graduate from college, and I am stressed about finding a job and establishing a career. A longstanding issue I’ve had with my immigrant Asian parents is that they want me to be a doctor or engineer and to make a very good salary for the rest of my life. But the truth is I’m more interested in working for environmental non-profits and in doing art. I am not interested at all in […]
By Ashley, cis female Content warning: suicidal ideation I never felt legitimate enough to think about therapy until a friend told me that most thirteen-year-olds don’t comfort themselves by dreaming of hurtling themselves out of high rises, and because I never stopped. My depression and suicidal ideation were always things for me to handle myself. It just never seemed bad enough, legitimate enough, when there were people who were actually depressed and taking meds, when there were people who were […]
I work remotely full time and I am taking two classes online towards my Masters degree. I’m really struggling with balancing work and life, in that I find myself facing my laptop for 12+ hours a day, feeling exhausted, and not having much of a life outside of work and classes. How can I improve my work-school-life balance? To ensure the best care for yourself and to improve your focus on the work that you need to do, you need […]
The UMass Chinese Mental Health Program invites you to participate in a series of short research surveys. The goals of our program are to understand how Chinese individuals in Massachusetts feel about the concept of mental health, facilitate discussions about mental health within families, and improve the health and well-being of our communities by sharing local resources. Participants will be asked to take a short 15-minute survey. If you choose to leave an email, you will be entered into a […]
By Shirley Huang, speech-language pathologist and bilingual researcher (黄文思) When my sister and I were little we used to get into a lot of trouble. We cut the carpet in our bedrooms because we thought it would grow like grass. We took turns using the washing machine to try to wash ourselves, like we did our clothes. We melted chocolate bars in a microwave until they exploded everywhere, because we wanted to drink hot chocolate. In these moments, my mother […]
By a 22 year old female from Boston, MA I grew up with my stepfather. He was a violent, abusive pedophile. As a result, this damaged my self-esteem. I felt like nothing I did was good enough. I was the invisible kid in my class, because I really can live without saying a word for three months. I feel that I am a “good person,” and yet my mother hates me for not having a back bone. Anyone can make […]
Mayor Walsh reaffirmed his support in favor of the preliminary injunction blocking U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fee increases, during an immigrant-serving media roundtable on Thursday, October 1. He also provided updates on housing stability and COVID-19 cases, as flu season starts. The roundtable was hosted by the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) and facilitated by its director Yusufi Vali, with guest presentations from Rita Nieves, Interim Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission, and Katie Forde, […]
By a Chinese individual from Queens, NY Mental health was not a conversation topic in my home. Growing up with a single mom my whole life, I was eager to try dorm life and get a taste of the world outside our apartment. This one week away from home was the trigger for all the underlying mental health struggles and unspoken burdens that had built up. I took a gap year to assess the panic attacks I had experienced during […]
By Hang Ngo, Psy.D. A parent struggles to support her children’s remote education My children are attending school remotely again this new school year, and I feel stressed about their learning while balancing my own job from home. Both my husband and I work full-time. It’s been a struggle to make sure our children are learning as much as they should, when we couldn’t supervise them during all their virtual classes and homework, and my children are on their iPads […]
By Anqi Zhang To address residents’ concerns about the COVID-19 testing site on 116 Harrison Avenue, located inside Chinatown, the Office of Ed Flynn organized a Zoom meeting on Aug. 18 for different parties in the community. The site is welcoming students from two universities in the neighborhood. Attendees of the discussion included Chinatown residents and representatives from Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Emerson College. “I believe that we should have a robust conversation about neighbors’ […]
