The Recognition of Mental Illness, Schizophrenia Identification, and Help-Seeking from Friends in Late Adolescence

Objective

The recognition of mental illness without anticipating stigma might encourage adolescents’ help-seeking behavior. We aimed to identify the relationship between mental illness identification and adolescents’ intention to seek help if faced with mental illness.

Method

We examined the relationships between help-seeking intentions and recognition of mental illness (RMI) without correctly identifying the disease name, as well as correct labelling of schizophrenia (LSC) using a vignette about a person with schizophrenia in a cross-sectional survey of 9,484 Japanese high-school students aged 15–18 years.

Results

When compared with adolescents who were unable to recognize the mental illness (UMI) in the vignette, those in the RMI group reported they were significantly more likely to seek help from friends (odds ratio [OR] = 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.17–1.41; P < 0.001) and expressed an increased likelihood to seek help from professionals (all P < .05). Those in the LSC group reported they were significantly less likely to exhibit help-seeking behavior (OR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.65–0.92, P = 0.003) and expressed an increased likelihood of help-seeking from health professionals than the UMI group (all P < .05).

Conclusion

The ability to recognize mental illness without identifying the disease may increase help-seeking from friends, while the ability to identify the disease as schizophrenia might decrease late adolescents’ help-seeking. To promote help-seeking behavior among adolescents, improving their ability to recognize mental illness generally is recommended.

Below:  Percentages of subjects in each group seeking help from different sources according to their responses to the case vignette of schizophrenia

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/Auastz

By:  

Syudo Yamasaki, Shuntaro Ando, Kaori Endo, Nozomu Asukai, Atsushi Nishida
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan

Shuntaro Ando, Kaori Endo
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Shinji Shimodera
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan

Yuji Okazaki
Kouseikai Michinoo Hospital, Nagasaki, Japan

Yuji Okazaki
Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Nozomu Asukai
Aoyamakai Aoki Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Satoshi Usami
Department of Psychology, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Tsukasa Sasaki
Department of Physical and Health Education, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Attitudes Toward Mental Health Help Seeking as Predictors of Future Help-Seeking Behavior and Use of Mental Health Treatments

OBJECTIVES:

The study examined the association of attitudes toward mental health help seeking and beliefs about the effectiveness of treatments with future help-seeking behavior and use of specific services in the general population.

METHODS:

Data on attitudes and beliefs at baseline were taken from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), a general population survey conducted in 1990-1992. Help seeking from various providers and use of psychiatric medications and counseling or therapy were examined in the NCS follow-up, in which 5,001 of the original NCS participants were reinterviewed in 2001-2003.

RESULTS:

Willingness to seek professional help for a serious emotional problem and feeling comfortable talking about personal problems with professionals were significantly associated with future help seeking and treatment use. One-third (33.4%) of participants who stated at baseline that they would "definitely go" to a professional if they had a serious emotional problem sought future help, compared with 20.7% of those who would "definitely not go." Corresponding values were 33.4% and 24.4% for those who reported feeling "very comfortable" and "not at all comfortable," respectively, talking about personal problems with a professional. The associations were consistent among participants with and without a history of help seeking and with and without mood, anxiety, or substance use disorders during the follow-up. Embarrassment if friends found out and beliefs about treatment effectiveness were not associated with future help seeking or service use.

CONCLUSIONS:

Identification of attitudinal factors most closely linked to future mental health help seeking has potential implications for public mental health campaigns.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/YnEvYQ

By:  Mojtabai R1, Evans-Lacko S1, Schomerus G1, Thornicroft G1.

• 1Dr. Mojtabai is with the Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore (e-mail: rmojtab1@jhu.edu ). Dr. Evans-Lacko and Dr. Thornicroft are with the David Goldberg Centre, Department of Health Services and Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, United Kingdom. Dr. Schomerus is with the Department of Psychiatry, Greifswald University, Stralsund, Germany.
• Psychiatr Serv. 2016 Feb 14:appips201500164. 

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Help-Seeking Behaviors of Abused Women in an Abortion Clinic Population

Women who seek induced abortion procedures experience high rates of intimate partner violence, yet little is known about their help-seeking behaviors. 

Using data collected from patients attending a large Midwestern clinic who screened positive for intimate partner violence, we analyzed how help-seeking women differed from women not seeking help and those not disclosing their help-seeking behavior. 

We measured current and planned resource use and evaluated self-perceived helpfulness of resources. Severe battering, physical and/or sexual abuse, frequent sexual abuse, increased relationship length, and employment were positively associated with help-seeking. 

Nearly half of women who screened positive for abuse in the past year had already sought or planned to seek help, indicating this population is receptive to intervention.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/MgWCQz

By:   Megan R. W. TePoel1, Audrey F. Saftlas1, Anne B. Wallis1, Karisa Harland1, Corinne Peek-Asa1⇑

¹University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

Corinne Peek-Asa, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa College of Public Health (http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/), 145 N. Riverside Dr., Room S143 CPHB, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Email: corinne-peek-asa@uiowa.edu

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Understanding Help-Seeking amongst University Students: The Role of Group Identity, Stigma & Exposure to Suicide & Help-Seeking

Despite a high prevalence of suicide ideation and mental health issues amongst university students, the stigma of help-seeking remains a barrier to those who are in real need of professional support. Social identity theory states that help received from an ingroup source is more welcome and less threatening to one's identity than that from a source perceived as outgroup. Therefore, we hypothesized that students' stigma toward seeking help from their university mental health service would differ based on the strength of their identification with the university.

An online survey including measures of stigma of suicide, group identification, experience with help-seeking and exposure to suicide was administered to Irish university students (N = 493).

Group identification was a significant predictor of help-seeking attitudes after controlling for already known predictors. Contrary to our expectations, those who identified more strongly with their university demonstrated a higher stigma of seeking help from their university mental health service.

Results are discussed in relation to self-categorization theory and the concept of normative fit. Practical implications for mental health service provision in universities are also addressed, specifically the need for a range of different mental health services both on and off-campus.

Below:  Relationship between stigma of help-seeking and group identification for males and females

Full article at: http://goo.gl/wrQLa4

By: Michelle Kearns,1,* Orla T. Muldoon,1 Rachel M. Msetfi,1 and Paul W. G. Surgenor2

¹Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

²Pieta House, Centre for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm, Lucan, Ireland

Edited by: Gian Mauro Manzoni, eCampus University, Italy

Reviewed by: Silvia Serino, I.R.C.C.S Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Italy; Julio Eduardo Armijo, Universidad de Chile, Chile

*Correspondence: Michelle Kearns, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Co. Limerick, Ireland ; Email: ei.lu@snraek.ellehcim

  

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Socio-Cultural Features and Help-Seeking Preferences for Leprosy and Turbeculosis: A Cultural Epidemiological Study in a Tribal District of Maharashtra, India

Below:  Map of Maharashtra State in India showing Thane district

In the multivariate logistic regression model with disease conditions as outcome variables, TB patients were significantly more likely to report PCs in the categories of ingestion; health, illness and injury; and traditional, cultural and supernatural. Tuberculosis patients more frequently first sought help from private facilities as compared to leprosy patients who preferred government health facilities. In a combined analysis of leprosy and TB patients employing multivariate logistic regression, it was found that patients who reported PCs in the environmental and contact-related categories were more likely to visit traditional rather than non-traditional practitioners. In another multivariate combined model, it was found that patients who reported PCs in the traditional, cultural and supernatural category were significantly more likely to visit private rather than public health facilities.

Cultural concepts about illness causation and associated HS behaviours should be considered as priorities for action, which in turn would provide the necessary impetus to ensure that tribal patients seek help in a timely and appropriate manner, and could facilitate improvement in programme performance in general.

Via:  http://ht.ly/QnGM6 MT @BioMedCentral