Shatter the Stigma: Project HoriZen’s First Asian Heritage Week Mental Health Panel
A meaningful conversation about mental health in the Asian community
On 1 June 2025, Project HoriZen hosted Shatter the Stigma, its inaugural panel discussion for Asian Heritage Week in Sydney. The event brought community members together for an honest and open dialogue about mental health — a topic that remains deeply stigmatised across many Asian communities. The evening was at capacity, with over 80 attendees, all of Asian heritage.
Project HoriZen founder Daniela Ho Tan was joined by two outstanding speakers, Edward Hua and Anushka Phal. Their insight and openness helped create a safe, supportive space where attendees could listen, reflect and connect. Thoughtful touches — including conversation starter cards, curated mental health resources, and a raffle to bring moments of lightness — were designed to foster engagement and ease.
The objective was clear: this was not therapy. Instead, the event encouraged attendees to simply “start the conversation” by having a chat with one of the volunteer psychologists circulating through the audience in their Shatter the Stigma T-shirts. The message was simple yet powerful — conversations about mental health do not need to be intimidating to be meaningful.
Breaking the Silence: What the Conversation Revealed
In many Asian communities, mental health discussions have historically been avoided, minimised, or confined to private family spaces. By clearly framing the event as dialogue rather than therapy, we acknowledged that, for some, simply attending was a courageous first step.
What emerged most powerfully throughout the evening was the gap between mental health needs and help-seeking within Asian communities. The speakers addressed this reality directly, creating space for vulnerability and connection — actively countering the silence that stigma sustains. The conversation reinforced that mental health support is not solely about clinical intervention; it is about normalising help-seeking as a shared community value rather than an individual shortcoming.
Why It Matters
Shatter the Stigma marks an important step in reducing barriers to mental health support within Asian communities. By bringing together lived experience, professional insight and practical resources in an open and respectful setting, Project HoriZen is contributing to the normalisation of mental health conversations in spaces where silence has often prevailed.
Organising this event reinforced that breaking stigma is not achieved through a single conversation. It is an ongoing practice — one that requires platforms, courageous voices and communities willing to listen.
