Mental Health Help‐Seeking and Young People: A Review

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, the issue of health and social care of young people is now a major concern for the government. Thus, a recent government green paper has insisted on the provision of early and appropriate interventions for young peoples' mental health difficulties and that their views must be incorporated into the design of mental health services. More recently, the NHS Health Advisory Service has recommended that schools and teachers should assume some responsibility in the identification of pupils who may have mental health difficulties. Unfortunately, there is scant information in the United Kingdom on young peoples' pathways into services. We know very little about their help‐seeking strategies and service use, barriers or facilitators to care, satisfaction with services and service preferences. In addition, we have limited knowledge of how young people conceptualize mental health or how they perceive mental health professionals. In brief, the needs and help‐seeking behaviours of young people in psychological distress are poorly understood and often mediated through older people such as parents and teachers. In this paper, we examine these issues and discuss the implications of such gaps in the evidence base for our understanding of adolescent help‐seeking and our ability to provide appropriate well‐targeted services.

Young Men, Help-Seeking, and Mental Health Services: Exploring Barriers and Solutions

“…Problems with interpreting, managing, and communicating distress can result in young men becoming caught in a cycle of avoidance as reported by Biddle et al (2007); often, waiting until severely distressed before seeking help (Cleary, 2012;Oliver, Pearson, Coe, & Gunnell, 2005). Perceived stigma is one of the most frequently cited barriers to professional help seeking in research literature (Clement et al, 2015;Rothì & Leavey, 2006); yet there is a lack of research exploring how young men experience stigma. Some studies have reported that young men may experience discomfort, embarrassment, fear, and shame around asking for help (Booth et al, 2004;Gonzalez et al, 2005;Hernan et al, 2010;Jorm, 2000;Rickwood et al, 2005).…”

“…Moreover, research on facilitators to professional help seeking is limited (Gulliver, Griffiths, & Christensen, 2010) with most research simply suggesting the mitigation of the barriers identified (Rothì & Leavey, 2006). However, an important finding on facilitators has shown young people need to have established and trusted relationships with those who can offer help (Rickwood et al, 2007;Vogel et al 2007).…”

An Overview of Help Seeking by Problem Gamblers and their Families Including Barriers to and Relevance of Services

“…Recent reviews (Abbott et al 2004;Delfabbro and LeCouteur 2003) indicate that there is a paucity of research on barriers to treatment for problem gambling. These reviews did not locate any published studies focusing specifically on family members of problem gamblers, yet families are thought to be significant pathways to help-seeking (Rothi and Leavey 2006).…”

System constraints on efficacious teacher behaviours in school-based suicide prevention initiatives; a qualitative study of teacher views and experiences

“…Ideally, mental health care should be available, in some form, in a school context and/or mental health services should take direct referrals from schools (WHO, 2000;Rothi & Leavey 2006a). In the absence of this, commissioning of gatekeeping training should take place concurrently with the auditing of existing provision and protocols in care pathways for young people at risk of suicide.…”