scholarly journals The Mental Health and Help-Seeking Behaviour of Children and Young People in Care in Northern Ireland: Making Services Accessible and Engaging

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 578-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Fargas-Malet ◽  
Dominic McSherry
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Young People ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour

Mental Health Literacy, Help-Seeking Behaviour and Wellbeing in Young People: Implications for Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (01) ◽  
pp. 16-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prishini Ratnayake ◽  
Chelsea Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Mental Health Literacy ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour

AbstractResearch indicates that individuals who have high levels of mental health literacy engage in help-seeking for mental health issues more in comparison to those with low mental health literacy. It is therefore important to ensure that young people are able to identify signs of psychological distress and identify appropriate supports and resources when necessary. Preliminary research has identified gender differences in help-seeking and identification of mental health problems. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between mental health literacy, help-seeking intentions and wellbeing in senior high school students. The sample consisted of 22 females and 10 male students, ranging from 16–18 years. Findings indicated a positive correlation between wellbeing and general help-seeking, as well as wellbeing and help-seeking for suicidal ideation. Gender differences were identified for aspects of mental health literacy and help-seeking intentions. Results of this research have implications for practitioners in fostering positive outcomes and developing targeted interventions towards improving mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviour in the future.

scholarly journals Help Seeking Behaviour of Chinese Living in Belfast, Northern Ireland

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Y.-W. Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Psychological Problem ◽  
Mental Illness Stigma ◽  
Covering Letter ◽  
Language Difficulty ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour ◽  
Chinese And English

Aims:British Chinese have a low uptake of mental health servcies. Poor symptom recognition, language difficulty and mental illness stigma are the key barriers to accessing services. This study aims to explore their help seeking behaviours when they experience mental illness.Methods:About 96% of Chinese in Northern Ireland worked in catering business. Questionnaires (both in Chinese and English) were sent to ninety-one addresses occupied by catering businesses in Belfast. A bilingual covering letter was enclosed to encourage recipients to ask their families and friends to return the questionnaires.Results:Twenty-four questionnaires were returned. 66.6% reported that they visited their GP within the year prior to the study. Only one person visited the GP becasue of a mental / psychological problem. All others visited their GP for their physical illness. Racism (58.3%), physical ill health (50%) and lack of social support (41.7%) were the key stressors. 21% would visit their GP if they had a mental health problem and 45.8% would contact the GP if someone they knew became mentally unwell. Poor recognition of mental illness (41.7%) and mental illness stigma (25%) were the reasons for not seeking medical advice.Conclusion:Findings revealed that the Chinese do seek help from their GP. However, little evidence suggests that the community will approach their GP when they or someone they know actually become mentally unwell. Further investigation is needed to explore diifferent ways to provide information about mental illness symptoms and mental health services for the community.

scholarly journals Help-seeking behaviour in men and women with common mental health problems: cross-sectional study

2005 ◽  
Vol 186 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Isabel Oliver ◽  
Nicky Pearson ◽  
Nicola Coe ◽  
David Gunnell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Professional Help ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour

BackgroundMany people with mental health problems do not seek professional help but their use of other sources of help is unclear.AimsTo investigate patterns of lay and professional help-seeking in men and women aged 16–64 years in relation to severity of symptoms and sociodemographic variables.MethodPostal questionnaire survey, including the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–12), sent to a stratified random sample (n=15222) of the population of Somerset.ResultsThe response rate was 76%. Only 28% of people with extremely high GHQ–12 scores (⩾8) had sought help from their general practitioner but most (78%) had sought some form of help. Males, young people and people living in affluent areas were the least likely to seek help.ConclusionsHealth promotion interventions to encourage appropriate help-seeking behaviour in young people, particularly in men, may lead to improvements in the mental health of this group of the population.

scholarly journals Who asked you? Young People and practitioners identify ways to facilitate access to mental health supports

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Ann Colleran ◽  
Anne O'Connor ◽  
Michael J. Hogan ◽  
Owen M. Harney ◽  
Hannah Durand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Young People ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Youth Mental Health ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour ◽  
Population Mental Health ◽  
Potential Impact

Background: Despite representing the highest level of total population mental health burden, young people are the least likely to seek help from mental health services. It has been suggested that service design can influence the likelihood that young people will look for help, but little is known about how young people would like a service to be designed. This study addresses a gap in research regarding how mental health services can be designed to facilitate access for young people.                          Methods: A collective intelligence, scenario-based design methodology was used to facilitate stakeholders to identify and prioritise ways to improve youth mental health services. In total, 74 15–17-year-olds from three geographically diverse schools in Ireland worked to identify barriers to help-seeking and to generate and prioritise options in response to barriers. Nine practitioners with experience of working in youth mental health services rated all options in terms of both potential impact on help-seeking and feasibility for service implementation. Results: A total of 326 barriers across 15 themes were generated by youth stakeholders, along with 133 options in response to barriers. Through a process of voting, young people identified 30 options as the most impactful for improving access to mental health services. Of these options, 12 were also rated by practitioners as having both high potential impact and high feasibility. These 12 options focused on four areas: making services more familiar and welcoming; providing specialist mental health input in schools; improving parental understanding; and improving the visibility of appropriate supports. Conclusions: The results of the current study inform mental health service innovation and development, in particular, by highlighting potentially impactful and feasible ways to adapt existing mental health services to improve young people’s help-seeking behaviour.

scholarly journals Perceptions Surrounding Mental Health in Young People and their Primary Caregivers and its Influence on Help-Seeking Behaviour of Young People across Socio-Economic Groups in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satvika Char
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Primary Caregivers ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Psychological Help ◽  
Professional Psychological Help ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviour ◽  
The Mean

The treatment gap that exists between the need and access of mental health care facilities is concerning and demands further enquiry. This exploratory research study aims to better understand barriers in accessing mental health care facilities for young people across socio-economic groups in India through the following objectives: 1) To find out a young person’s understanding and perception of mental health. 2) To understand if the participant has any stigma and perception surrounding mental health and mental disorders. 3) To understand if the participant’s stigma, perception and understanding differs from that of their primary caregiver. 4) To understand the access and help-seeking behaviour of the participant to mental health care facilities and whether this is influenced by their own/primary caregiver’s perceptions. A mixed-methods analysis was carried out. The total sample size of this study is 66 which includes 33 young people as primary participants and 33 primary caregivers as secondary participants. Quantitative data collection was carried out via a form through snowball and purposive sampling. Three scales were included- Kuppuswamy socioeconomic Scale, Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill Scale, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (N=33). The CAMI Scale was administered to the primary caregivers (N=33) of the young people participants as well. The participants were divided into 2 groups based on their score in the Kuppuswamy Socioeconomic Scale, Upper/Upper Middle (N=18) and Lower/Lower Middle (N=15) This data was then analysed through SPSS using Kendall Tau’s correlation coefficient and independent sample t-test. Qualitative data was collected as a voluntary subset of the participants who filled out the quantitative data form though a focus group discussion. 2 focus groups (Upper/Upper Middle and Lower/Lower Middle) were interviewed through a semi-structured interview structure using an FGD Guide. This data was analysed using thematic analysis. The lowest and highest obtainable scores for the CAMI scale were 12 and 60 respectively. For the ATSPPH scale, these values were 0 and 30. The mean score for the young people CAMI was 45.09 (SD=6.94). When the same scale was administered to the primary caregivers, the mean was 42.24 (SD=8.00). For the ATSPPH scale, the mean score was 19.06 (SD=6.65). The findings from this study suggest that stigma isn’t the main barrier in help-seeking behaviour and that participants across socio-economic groups, without being influenced by the perceptions of their parents, have the desire to seek professional psychological help when experiencing mental distress. The problem lies in not knowing who to approach and in a lack of knowledge with regards to how to access available mental healthcare. The study also suggests that perceptions toward mental illness and the desire to seek professional psychological help do not vary significantly across upper/upper middle and lower/lower middle socioeconomic groups.

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