ASAM NEWS
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| LIHUI LIU |
A HOUSTON MOTHER of a five-year-old boy is accused of drowning and decapitating him before dumping the body in the trash can, reports KTRK.
Lihui Liu, 43, is scheduled to be in court Thursday (Dec. 6) on the charges.
Kai Xu said his wife has fought depression on and off for years. He revealed that his wife had been treated for mental health problems after a suicide attempt in August, She had been prescribed antidepressants but she refused to take them, said Xu.
On Friday, his older daughter went to school, while his son stayed home. Xu said he hoped it would brighten her mood.
"She loved her children. I thought having my son with her that day would put her in a good mood," he said. "But the result was terrible."
Police arrested her after responding to a stabbing call on Friday. Her husband told authorities he returned home and questioned his wife about their son’s whereabouts. That’s when he said she told him he was in the trash can. Investigators later found the bloody knife in the bathroom and a blood-spattered bathtub, where he apparently was drowned before being beheaded, according to the
Houston Chronicle.
When the father returned home, Liu reportedly told him that she didn't know where the boy had gone. She later revealed what had happened. The boy's remains were found in the trashcan.
The paper also reported Child Protective Services had been to the house in 2015, but that the children had never been in protective custody.
A judge denied Liu’s bail request. She remains in Harris County jail.
Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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ASAM NEWS
A new study has found older Chinese Americans live healthier and happier lives if they are socially connected and maintain ties to their culture, reports Rutgers Today.
Researcher XinQi Dong of Rutger University’s Institute of Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, interviewed 3,000 Chinese Americans ages 60 and over in the Chicago area.
The researchers concluded that depression and loneliness may negatively impact cognitive function, but those effects can be alleviated by individual, social and family resources.
According to the American Council on Science & Health, the authors of the study believe that there’s a direct connection between memory loss and loneliness and depression.
“The key finding of this study is that loneliness was associated with poor global cognitive functioning in U.S. Chinese older adults,” the authors wrote. “We suspect that loneliness and depressive symptoms act together to influence cognitive functioning.”
The same study also found that Chinese Americans have a higher rate of psychological distress, dementia and cancer, especially in the elderly.
“Health is multifaceted,” Dong said. “These studies reinforce the idea that we cannot just look at the individual, but must take into account the person’s social, community, national and cultural contexts. More systematic and integrated approaches are needed to generate and translate knowledge in Asian populations in order to move the needle on health equity in our increasing diverse populations.”
