VIDEO: IBD-related mental illness is ‘rarely discussed’ due to cultural stigmas
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In this Healio video series, which focuses on cultural competency in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, Sharan Khela, an IBD patient advocate who has Crohn’s disease, shares her story and cultural stigmas she has had to overcome.
One of the barriers Khela has faced is that her parents did not fully understand her diagnosis, since English is not their first language. In addition, dieticians did not factor her culture into her diet, which was important to her.
These barriers and other cultural stigmas led to Khela’s depression, which she felt she had to keep to herself.
“Mental illness is so rarely discussed in the South Asian community due to the cultural stigma attached around having emotional illness,” Khela said. “I even failed to see the signs for myself.”
Khela joined Crohn’s and Colitis UK to help others and later collaborated with members of the South Asian IBD Alliance to establish IBDesis, a global digital platform that empowers and supports South Asians with IBD.
“We were all led to believe growing up that this wasn’t a common disease in our community and that maybe we had done something to cause this to happen,” Khela said. “Together we wanted to be able to change that.”
Healio is working closely with the SAIA for this series. There has been an increase in the incidence and prevalence of IBD among South Asians, and the community faces many barriers to treatment and surgery. SAIA focuses on creating resources, research and education for IBD patients and health care providers of South Asian origin to reduce disparities and stigma, promote early diagnosis and improve treatment access.
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