South East Asian -Australian and disability

The number of South East Asian-Australian identifying or living with disability is unknown. Despite the introduction of the NDIS, there is anecdotal suggestions that there is a low level of NDIS application from the Asian-Australian community. This may be contributed by cultural stigma of people with a disability amongst the Asian-Australian communities.

When compared to other cultural backgrounds such as Latinos, African Australians. European Australians and Polynesian Australian, Asian Australians are likely to have the highest rate of stigma toward physical and mental disabilities.

 

This could be attributed to the deep embedded cultural superstitious curse belief that they have been punished and are likely to hide the family member from the community to save face.

In Asian culture, face is defined as one’s prestige, respectability, social status or value, as deemed by others in the community. To avoid possible stigma and shame, family are likely to keep the family member with the disability out of sight and house bound to avoid potential unwanted rumours and speculations that may potentially damage one’s reputation or losing face.

Parents tends to wear the burden of looking after the child with a disability privately unnoticed and risking the well-being of the individual and potentially forego any external support or care even possible diagnosis.

Calm Tree have launched an initiative to bridge this gap and provide support through cultural approaches to help ease the burden for families in the South East Asian communities through building a team of bilingual Support Workers who speaks a South East Asian language as well.

Through this initiative we hope that it will bring some old myths out of the dark so individuals are getting the care and support that is needed while giving families a break from the burden. We recognize that it is a long road ahead, but with support from the Asian – Australian communities, we hope that it will be a positive experience that will bond families with their communities in an open space.