Self-reported Barriers to Treatment Engagement: Adolescent Perspectives from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess youth self-reported treatment barriers in the past 12 months to obtain youth's perspective on reasons they seek treatment, do not engage in treatment, or terminate treatment. The present study uses data from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally representative survey administered to youth ages 13-18 that was conducted between February 1, 2001 and January 30, 2004. A total of 10,123 youth participated in the NCS-A study and provided the information on which the current paper draws its data. Within the past 12 months over 63% of youth reported seeking treatment to manage and cope with emotions. The greatest percentage of youth reported that they did not seek treatment because they wanted to handle the problem on their own (59.3%). The greatest percentage of youth reported that treatment was terminated because they wanted to handle the problem on their own (57.5%). Findings suggest professionals need to educate youth about the importance of professional treatment to increase engagement. If providers can motivate youth to see the value of treatment and help them understand that there can be positive outcomes, they may be less likely to terminate prematurely.

Proximally-occurring life events and the first transition from suicidal ideation to suicide attempt in adolescents

“…Adolescents with substance use disorders and misuse are also less likely to access mental health services (Merikangas et al, 2011), and endorse more negative attitudes about seeking professional help (Gould et al, 2004). Not seeking treatment is associated with wanting to handle problems on one's own (Sylwestrzak et al, 2015), which is itself associated with more severe suicidal ideation and depression in adolescents (Labouliere et al, 2015).…”

Why do children and adolescents (not) seek and access professional help for their mental health problems? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies

“…Young people's broader perceptions of help-seeking were reported as barriers in 39% of studies, and as facilitators in 4%. This subtheme captured young people's general attitudes towards mental health and help-seeking [31,49,53,55,59], help-seeking expectations [20,27,31,33,37,38,46,48,54,59,68,75] and perceptions about how help-seeking reflects on their character, such as perceiving help-seeking as a sign of weakness [21,49,54,60,63,73,75]. The latter was reported in all studies that included male-only samples.…”

“…This subtheme only captured barriers and was more frequently reported in the quantitative studies than qualitative studies. Young people also reported past experiences to be both facilitators [26,40,47,53,73,74] and barriers [35,40,46,53] to seeking professional help for their mental health problems. Past positive experience was the most commonly reported facilitator, reported in 15% of studies.…”

Maternal psychopathology and mental health treatment delay in adolescents from a national cohort

“…Children of parents treated for their mental disorders may profit from more accepting and less stigmatizing parental attitudes toward mental health treatment . Moreover, children of parents with mental disorders may be less likely to believe the problem would spontaneously remit or they can solve it on their own; both beliefs have been found to represent frequent barriers to help‐seeking . Third, the estimated association between maternal mental disorders and adolescent mental health service use may be mediated by child disorder severity .…”

“…42 Moreover, children of parents with mental disorders may be less likely to believe the problem would spontaneously remit or they can solve it on their own; both beliefs have been found to represent frequent barriers to help-seeking. 43 Third, the estimated association between maternal mental disorders and adolescent mental health service use may be mediated by child disorder severity. 19 Previous studies reported that children of parents with mental disorders developed more severe mental disorders, as Notes: All analyses were run in completer subsamples, based on the main sample of mother-adolescent dyads (N = 2939), and were restricted to those participants who reported any lifetime service use per sector (see Table 2).…”