Healing Through Stories: Co-designing Digital Mental Health with Asian Americans

As mental health concerns grow among Asian American communities, there is an urgent need for culturally-relevant support. While digital mental health treatments (DMHTs) offer new opportunities for interventions, they have largely been focused on non-minority populations in the U.S. (e.g., Caucasians, females, who are middle-aged). Through co-design sessions with Asian Mental Health Collective (AMHC), this study examines the unique mental health challenges faced by Asian Americans, intergenerational connections and elements of culturally-relevant mental health support. The co-design sessions resulted in two prototypes: A multifunctional community hub, to strengthen connections and resource access, and a storytelling app, for sharing and preserving cultural narratives. These prototypes drew from community co-design sessions to include elements of storytelling, community-centered approaches, and intergenerational engagement in addressing mental health concerns among Asian Americans. Leveraging the heterogeneous and similar cultural experiences among Asian Americans, this paper presents and discusses nuances and considerations for digital mental health technology (DMHT) designs for minority communities.