Help-Seeking Preferences to Informal and Formal Source of Care for Depression: A Community-Based Study in Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Globally, 350 million people are suffering from depression. Many people suffering from depression use different sources of help for their problems. People with different mental health problems seek help from formal and/or informal sources. This gives crucial information on community beliefs and perception regarding their preference for help. This study helps to guide effective planning and provision of mental health services, and health policy of the country to explore the community's preference to different sources of help. Objective: The aim was to contrast patterns of formal and informal help-seeking preferences for depression among residents of Aykel town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: This cross-sectional population-based study included 832 participants. We used a major depressive disorder case vignette and general help-seeking questionnaire (GHSQ) to assess preference to seek help. Study participants were selected by multistage cluster sampling technique. An independent sample t-test and analysis of variance test (ANOVA) was performed. Results: A total of 656 subjects (78.8%) showed high propensity to intimate partner, and 655 (78.7%) of the study subjects had high propensity to mental health professional. The mean score of the residents' preference to seek help from informal sources was 3.41±0.60. The mean score of preference to seek help from formal sources was 3.18±0.75. A total of 276 (33.2%) subjects showed high propensity to both informal and formal sources of help. The results also showed there was a mean score difference in preference for informal help between subjects with strong social support and low and moderate social support (P<0.001). Conclusion:The result suggests that the majority of the residents had a higher preference to seek help from informal sources than formal sources of care. Providing and strengthening both formal and informal sources of help in conjunction are crucial to get a more qualified and effective care for depressed patients.

Help-Seeking Behaviors and Related Factors in Chinese Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…One possible explanation is that they are easier to access. In addition, they are usually reliable sources of support, especially emotional and informational support, and may help patients with MDD to seek help from healthcare settings ( 14 ). Relying on these helps to reduce stigmatization is another explanation ( 37 ).…”

“…A patient’s perceived helpfulness of treatment is an important issue, evidenced by the results of the World Mental Health Surveys (WMHS), which showed that 68.2% patients with MDD considered the treatment helpful ( 13 ). Moreover, in fact, most residents were more likely to seek help from some non-healthcare sources (such as intimate partner, parents, friends) for depression ( 14 ). In China, a previous study provided 23 potential sources for patients with mental disorder to receive help ( 15 ) and also showed that Chinese patients with mental disorders were likely to seek different kinds of help-seeking sources and their first-choice helps were sought in non-healthcare sources.…”

The status of depression literacy and its relationship with quality of life among Iranian public population: a cross sectional study

“…People prefer to seek help from less formal sources such as the family for mental health problems [ 48 ]. Studies have shown that the most common source of help for people about health treatment is talking to family or friends [ 49 , 50 ].…”

Change in suicidal ideation and associated factors among young adults in Hong Kong from 2018 to 2019: a latent transition analysis

“…Recent studies [ 35 – 37 ] have explored the feasibility of online help-seeking via the internet. These possibilities call for an evaluation on the comparative effectiveness of various help-seeking behaviors across informal/formal sources [ 38 , 39 ] and offline/online channels [ 40 , 41 ]. In view of this, the third objective of this study was to compare the transition pattern in suicidal ideation among individuals with different help-seeking behaviors.…”