Service Use for Mental Health Problems: Findings from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

Abstract

Rates of service use for mental health problems among those with mental disorders in Australia are less than optimal. Little international guidance is available regarding appropriate levels of treatment coverage and other comparable countries face similar difficulties. Further work is required to determine what an appropriate rate of service use is, and to set targets to reach that rate. Australia has demonstrated that concerted policy efforts can improve rates of service use. These efforts should be expanded.

Reluctance to seek professional help among suicidal people: results from the Swiss Health Survey

“…Secondly, depression was positively associated with being in treatment. These two findings are in line with other studies that looked at actual behaviour (Borges et al 2010;Burgess et al 2009;Husky et al 2012;Johnston et al 2009;Pirkis et al 2003;Wang et al 2007;Zachrisson et al 2006), but contradict the investigations that described a negative association between levels 10 of suicidality or mental health problems and intentions to seek professional help (Carlton and Deane 2000;Deane et al 2001;Wilson et al 2005;Yakunina et al 2010). Hence, it can be assumed that help-negation stands out more clearly in studies that look at help-seeking intentions, rather than actual help-seeking behaviour.…”

“…Low rates of formal help-seeking among suicidal people (Borges et al 2010;Husky et al 2012;Johnston et al 2009;Pirkis et al 2003;Wu et al 2010) or among people with significant mental health problems Essau 2005;Wang et al 2007;Zachrisson et al 2006) indicate that those who might need help are not accepting or accessing available resources. By contrast, other studies about actual helpseeking behaviour have not found an inverse association between levels of suicidality or mental health problems and help-seeking (Borges et al 2010;Burgess et al 2009;Husky et al 2012;Johnston et al 2009;Pirkis et al 2003;Wang et al 2007;Zachrisson et al 2006).…”

Social determinants of mental health service utilization in Switzerland

“…Other researchers also found lower utilization rates among those with substance use relative to those with mood problems (Angst et al 2005;Bijl and Ravelli 2000;Burgess et al 2009;Kohn et al 2004;Kovess-Masfety et al 2007;Reavley et al 2010;Rhodes et al 2002), possibly because the former less often perceived a need for treatment (Mojtabai et al 2002) and more often believed that treatment would be of limited value (Rhodes et al 2002;ten Have et al 2010). Furthermore, stigma and shame have also been identified as a major reason for not seeking treatment among those with problematic alcohol use (Probst et al 2015).…”

“…Need factors, such as having a diagnosed mental disorder or suffering from more severe mental health problems, have indeed been identified as the most important predictors of utilization in different countries (e.g., Burns et al 2003;Leaf et al 1988;Parslow and Jorm 2000;Schomerus et al 2012). However, predisposing and enabling factors -such as female gender (Angst et al 2005;Bijl et al 2003;Bovier et al 2001;Burgess et al 2009;Fleury et al 2014;Wang et al 2007), higher educational level (Bijl and Ravelli 2000;Kovess-Masfety et al 2007;Parslow and Jorm 2000;Schomerus et al 2012;Wang et al 2007), more positive attitudes towards help-seeking (ten Have et al 2010) and having health insurance (e.g., Garfield et al 2011) -have repeatedly been shown to increase the likelihood of using mental health services even after adjusting for need.…”

Successful provision of emergency mental health care to rural and remote New South Wales: an evaluation of the Mental Health Emergency Care–Rural Access Program

“…6 General practitioners (GPs) and emergency departments are the usual providers of emergency mental health care in such settings. 1,7,8 Responding to emergency presentations demands considerable dedication from local clinicians, who may lack specific mental health training, confidence or time to care for mental health patients. [8][9][10] The management of mental health emergencies in communities without ready access to specialist expertise can result in the unnecessary transfer of some patients out of their community to a mental health inpatient unit and, for others, a delay in referral and/ or diagnosis due to local providers underestimating the seriousness or extent of the condition.…”