I am pleasantly surprised at how exposed I have been to mental health issues
in public health this semester; it is a topic that we have discussed almost
every class, Lala’s point of interest, my group’s final paper project, and an
area I will soon be working in. I think
a large part of why we discuss mental health in public health is because there
are a lot of perceived barriers to seeking mental health care due to stigma
that varies from country to country and even town to town.
Gulliver, Griffiths, and Christensen (2010) looked at perceived barrier
and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people globally. The statistics they found are not surprising
to what we already know: only 18% of 12-17 year olds in Germany with
diagnosable anxiety disorders utilized mental health care; only 34% of 15-16
year olds in Norway with high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms sought
professional mental health care in the previous year; and only 25% of children
4-17 with a diagnosable mental disorder had utilized mental health services six
months prior to the survey. Key barriers
that they found in their review included the following: stigma surrounding
mental illness (10 studies); confidentiality/trust (6); unable to identify
symptoms of mental illness (5); concerns about the mental health provider (5);
and reliance on self/do not want help (5); among others (see Table 1 of
reference). I have included a picture of
the top rated barriers they found in quantitative studies (Table 3). Curiously, they also looked at key
facilitator themes to seeking mental health services: positive past experiences
with help-seeking, social support/help from others, confidentiality/trust in
mental health provider, among others (see Table 2 in reference).
Studies
like this are crucial because they help health care professionals fix the right
problems: the first step to solving an issue is to (1) talk with the people
your intervention affects and (2) ask questions ask questions ask
questions. I also think that Lala’s
article on reflexivity that we read a few weeks could come into play perfectly
with this topic. Stigma has
unfortunately portrayed mental illnesses harshly and creates judgements in all
of us. With mental health especially it
is important to address your own judgements and thoughts, put them aside, and
focus on the issue and people. On a
global scale, these judgements can vary widely.
Again, before we plan an intervention it is important to talk with the
people of the area we are working in, and realize that what worked for one
country/town may not work for another.
Slowly but surely, I think we can defeat the barriers to mental health
help-seeking.
Reference
Gulliver,
A., Griffiths, K. M., & Christensen, H. (2010). Perceived barriers and
facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: A systematic
review. BioMed Central Psychiatry, 10(1),
1.
Lisa, I too have enjoyed my time learning about mental health this semester. It is even my culminating project’s topic! In my World Food Problems class we discussed the barriers to mental health care and its relationship with food security. While individuals are blamed for not have a home, not having a job, and about everything else, there are circumstances that we do not know about. We played a game where we were assigned different identities and rolled a die to determine individual life changes. When our “mentally ill” person received a positive change in the form of a scholarship, the person who received it was confused about how that was going to work. We then talked about how there is a wide spectrum of mental illness and not all of them are completely debilitating. I thought it was an extremely profound realization for everyone in the class. When we try to blame people for not seeking help with their illnesses (mental or otherwise) we must look at what is keeping them from seeking treatment. You are completely correct about their being a social stigma on mental health. This stigma varies from country to country, but it is definitely a large reason for many people to not seek help. Hopefully, in the future people will be more accepting of others illnesses. We have come a long way with other diseases, but the discrimination against mental illnesses has not been worked on yet.
ReplyDeleteLisa and Erin, great posts! I think what also needs to be mentioned here is the need to strategically approach the barriers and stigma that you mentioned independently for each illness. The term mental health is a broad term that includes various illnesses. I believe that in order to address these, it would be imperative to do so as a separate illness in order to create effective communication strategies. Also, I think it would be important to further investigate different personality traits associated with individuals who tend to not seek treatment. Perhaps linking these two initiatives may help further combat this. It is unfortunate that not a lot of funding is given to this cause; however, to reiterate, we most definitely have come a long way!
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