A Long Beach family shares their story of navigating mental health | Mental Health Awareness Month

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:01]We're continuing to highlight mental health awareness month by sharing resources available around Southern California.

[00:00:06]>> This morning CBS LA anchor Pat Harvey shows us how finding help can sometimes become a family matter.

[00:00:12]Today our focus is on finding support. I want you to meet a Long Beach family to see how they found help to conquer shame, stigma, and cultural taboos.

[00:00:24]With family gathered in the kitchen and fresh lumpia being prepared at the stove, [music] there is an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Thank you Lord for all your blessings. She's doing better.

[00:00:34]Means don't do things alone. Sally Sagaral Chan of Long Beach first experienced serious mental illness at 16. She was a competitive volleyball player at the time, in the middle of a tournament.

[00:00:46]>> I forgot to play volleyball. The coach called me.

[00:00:49]And then I think something wrong with your daughter. She is She is She is not talking.

[00:00:52]>> Sally had also stopped sleeping. Her doctor was baffled. Two days later, I thought I was having a big panic attack where my heart was going to explode from my chest. And I told my dad [music] to take me to the ER. After ruling out heart trouble, the hospital called in a psychiatrist.

[00:01:10]>> I was so far off, so unstable. [music] They gave me um a hold, a 5150. An involuntary commitment. Three days locked in the hospital followed by two weeks at home.

[00:01:21]It was a hard time. Sally's sister Lisa, 18 months younger, attended the same school. Just like the popular one. Her friends would ask me, "Hey, what's wrong with Sally?" "Oh, she's sick." "What kind of sick?" I didn't know how to respond. Sally's initial diagnosis, >> schizoaffective disorder because there's some delusions there and psychosis.

[00:01:41]But saying these words to immigrants freaks them out, you know? So, my mom didn't even tell me that I was diagnosed with that.

[00:01:49]>> Sally's parents, Cecilia and Romeo, grew up in the Philippines where talk of mental illnesses was taboo. They gave her a but she want to take the medications.

[00:01:59]>> With no understanding of her diagnosis.

[00:02:01]I didn't trust my doctors.

[00:02:02]>> Six years later, at 23, she gave birth.

[00:02:05]>> Within a few days, I was back to the mental hospital. It would be the first of 10 hospitalizations over 6 years.

[00:02:12]>> I just didn't believe the meds could help.

[00:02:14]>> A year after the birth of her daughter, Sally was pregnant again while still suffering a severe complication.

[00:02:21]>> Postpartum depression.

[00:02:23]Doctors diagnosed bipolar [music] mood disorder. Days of sleepless mania followed by bouts of deep depression.

[00:02:30]Distrustful of medication, Sally couldn't control her symptoms.

[00:02:34]Sally told us she lost her mind.

[00:02:37]>> You can only imagine how heartbreaking that is. Desperate to help, Sally's parents abandoned cultural taboos and turned to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, or NAMI. That's what we started learning how to cope. Instead of yelling, they learned I had to communicate like, you know, be solved and no shouting. Slowly, Sally began to trust her parents, then her doctors, and restarted her treatment. She also joined a NAMI support group herself.

[00:03:06]>> You don't have to choose to be alone.

[00:03:08]Sally now works for NAMI in Long Beach.

[00:03:10]Her sister Lisa and husband Kevin facilitate support groups for people [music] who have mental illness and those who love them.

[00:03:19]Romy and Cecilia encourage other immigrant families to reach out like they did. We help others who will survive. You can meet Sally and her family and so many others who have conquered mental health challenges on Saturday. That's when the NAMI Walks and Mental Health Festival comes to LA. We have all the details at cbsla.com/mentalhealth.