LA Times Filipino American mental health story #4

The final story in my four-part series looks at the role Catholicism plays in Filipino American mental health.

Illustration by Alycea Tinoyan

Hello!

The fourth and final story of my LA Times series on Filipino American mental health, supported by The Carter Center, was published today.

You can read it here.

When I outlined my proposal for this series, I originally planned on dedicating the last story to the sources of stigma around mental health in the community and how to dismantle it. But my editor, Ada, suggested it might be a good idea to have one story explore the role of Catholicism in mental health because it came up pretty often in our conversations with people we spoke with. (Plus, stigma came up naturally in each of the other stories.)

So I agreed to change the direction of my series, unsure of what kind of story I would tell.

Deciding on the angle for this piece was the most challenging out of all four stories. Catholicism is a broad topic, and there were a million different ways I could’ve written about it. A constant thought that came up for me as I got closer to working on this story is how strongly people feel about the faith: for some, Catholicism is an immensely positive aspect of their lives. For others, the religion has been deeply hurtful.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to write this in a way that validated all the experiences that emerged in the reporting process. I asked myself, How should I start the story? If I start with a person who has had a negative or positive experience with Catholicism, would that set the tone for a narrative that favors one viewpoint over the other?

My senior advisor at The Carter Center, Tori Murden McClure, was an invaluable sounding board while I was in limbo. She hopped on a last minute call with me a few weeks ago to talk through possible approaches. So a big thank you to Tori!

The end result is what you’ll read in the article. It offers some insight into the reasons people have been hurt, what role the church plays in addressing mental health, as well as what else it can do. I know that there’s so much more to be said about the intersection of culture, faith and mental health. But I hope this piece sparks conversations about that — about aspects that were and weren’t covered in it. I also hope that no matter where readers stand in their faith (or non-faith) journeys, the perspectives highlighted in this piece will encourage a greater understanding of the different experiences people have.

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If you’ve read my previous newsletters announcing the publication of my articles, you know I always take time to express my gratitude for the folks at the LA Times who have supported my work. I never tire of saying thank you to them because there’s just no way I could have done all of this on my own.

My appreciation goes out to Ada Tseng and Matt Ballinger for editing my story with such thoughtfulness and care; Nicole Vas and Jim Cooke for providing art direction; Alycea Tinoyan for the illustration, which allows readers to interpret how they perceive Catholicism; LA Times audience engagement editor Maneeza Iqbal for optimizing the article for search engines (so it’s easier for the community to find mental health resources online!); and Ada, Matt, LA Times Utility reporter Karen Garcia and LA Times reporter Jonah Valdez for cofacilitating the focus group I held for this story.

Although this is the last installment of this project, I’m not done just yet! I’m working with the LA Times and open mic space Sunday Jump to hold an in-person event in November to celebrate the stories that have been shared over the past year. I’ll share more details once things are finalized.

Until then, please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or feedback on the story and/or series. I always look forward to hearing from you all.

Agnes