The Impact of Mental Health Literacy on Help- Seeking Intentions: Results of a Pilot Study with First Year Psychology Students

Many citizens do not get the help they need because they are afraid of what will happen after telling someone their feelings. Why is that? People with mental illnesses should be okay with telling someone, while not being scared about what they might think of them after getting the help. That is why citizens should get the help they need. Which then when they do not get the help they need it can lead to even worse circumstances. According to a doctor with a PhD, David Susman. The eight reasons people do not get help when they have a mental illness is, one, fear and shame. Two, limited awareness; three, lack of insight; four, feelings of inadequacy; five, distrust; six, hopefulness; seven, unavailability; lastly, practical barriers. Although that most likely did not make any sense to the reader, citizens with or without a mental illness should address the problem so people with mental illness do not feel like they are alone. If the depression does not get help thoughts of suicide become a natural occurrence, the depression can become worse, likewise other medical issues can arise. Such as pains/aches can happen all over the person with a mental illness, the brain chemistry of a person with a mental disorder changes which can lead to strokes or even a heart attack. The well being of those who have a mental health issue that do not get help, remains appalling, alarming, furthermore the people with mental health issues have perpetual

Our progress in learning the causes and treatments for mental illness has been steady as we build on the medical model of mental illness, which Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2010) describe as a model that, “views emotional and behavioral problems as a mental illness, comparable to a physical illness (pp. 341). Only in modern times have we been able to effectively treat mental illness with behavioral therapy, social support, medicine, and other research-based programs. However, there is still much work to be done in regard to access, proper facilities, policy and a host of other challenges that affect this issue.

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

One of the biggest contributors for poor healthcare is the stigma against mental health. This stigma allows healthcare providers to view those with a mental illness as having low relevance, thus creating disinclination towards providing adequate resources and/or care. This negative stance, based on misinformation and prejudice creates those that have a mental illness to lose their self confidence. Because of this loss, people with mental illness decide not to contribute to their health or livelihood. In the past fifty years, many advances have been made in mental healthcare. However, with the attached stigma, many people choose to not seek out treatment.

Youth face several challenges with regard to mental health treatment. While eligibility for Medicaid is certainly a huge issue with young adults, there was one surprising issue that the youth reported as influencing their treatment decisions. The teens stated they felt forced into mental health treatment while in care, even when they did not feel they needed therapy. The adolescents also reported a loss of previously established supports and being inadequately prepared to go out into the adult world as they were never taught necessary life skills (Sakai, et al., 2014). This was consistent with the findings in other

In the United States the Mental Health Care field is one of the most underserved areas of healthcare. The mental healthcare field faces many challenges to the proper treatment of patients from both a societal and professional standpoint. From a societal perspective a negative stereotype is associated with patients seeking psychiatric care. Patients seeking care are often labeled as defective or damaged. Add in the complication that most patients with mental illness appear to be normal, accepting that someone is ill without outward symptoms can also be difficult for a society to understand. From a professional perspective the challenges within the mental health care industry include personal prejudice, staffing issues, and problems with coordinating care. The combination of these factors has a direct negative impact on the willingness of individuals suffering from mental illness in seeking the care needed to treat the symptoms of mental illness.

the decision to seek help is more likely when the mental health problem is undesirable and cannot go away by its own. Stigmas play a major part of deciding not to get the treatment that they need.

The CDC reported only 20% of US adults went to a mental health provider in the past year. The other 80% were too ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with getting help. Society has shaped an image of the perfect person, and people with mental illnesses don’t believe that they fit that mold, because of this, they aren’t willing to seek help and instead turn to dangerous coping methods. Some of these coping methods include, smoking, drinking, drug use, binge eating, cutting, and possible suicide. These methods can cause chronic disease and premature death. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, those living with serious mental illness die an average of 25 years earlier than the general public, primarily due to treatable conditions. Due to the stigma of mental illness, people are treated wrongfully and are discriminated against, causing them to not get proper care. This discrimination causes people to have unequal access to housing, healthcare, employment, education, and community support, and can lead to unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. With all of these unfair and unjust barriers, it’s not hard to figure out why people wait so long to get diagnosed.

Mental illnesses are very common in the United States, with one in five of adolescents having a diagnosed mental illness and in the last year less than half of these adolescents have received proper treatment. The most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression, can disrupt daily life and result in suicide, which is the third most frequent cause of death in teenagers (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Ten percent of adolescents did not have health insurance in 2013 and those who did, had a very limited amount of mental health care services provided to them (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). It has been proved that it is even less likely that adolescents who are poor, homeless, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will receive the care that is necessary for their health and even life (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Mental disorders are not only an

Caputo and Rouner’s study found that many people are uneducated about mental illness and they get their information from the media (2011, p. 595 ). Citing National Mental Health Association, Caputo and Rouner (2011), noted that 58% of people learn about mental illness from newspapers, 51% from television news, 34% from news magazines, and 70% from television programs (p. 596). There is so much negativity attached to mental illness that many people are scared to seek help because of public perception (Caputo & Rouner, 2011, p.

According to Newsome and Gladding (2014), mental disorders are widespread in the population, thus difficult to assess the amount of people affected. Let alone, they discovered that there are 26.2% of adults aged 18 and older who are overwhelmed by a disorder each year. Also, When considering adults, this statistic renders into one of four adults, therefore 57.7 million adults in the United States. In regards to this, many agencies and insurance companies require counselors to know how to formally diagnosis mental disorders (Newsome & Gladding, 2014, p. 154). Newsome and Gladding (2014) explain when diagnosing a mental disorder, counselors use either informal or formal, which, for example, assist in decision making in whether the client's complication is a developmental issue or a type of pathology (pg 154).

One out of five adults with a mental illness, are not able to obtain the treatment they need. Unlike the amount of people with a mental illness who did not receive treatment, the individuals who are reporting unmet needs are seeking treatment and facing barriers to getting the help they need.

Awareness. Many people are unaware of the symptoms of mental illness and therefore are not able to spot them in themselves or others. Unfortunately, there is a problem when it comes to educating people on mental health. People don’t want to talk about mental health problems. They are afraid of mental illness and therefore avoid the topic. There is also a stigma in society that those with mental illness are in control of their disabilities so they are told to “change their thinking” rather than to seek medical help. This stigma and ignorance of mental illness symptoms often means that people struggling with mental health problems do not get help until they are at a point of crisis.

Access to mental health care is not as good as than other forms of medical services. Some Americans have reduced access to mental health care amenities because they are living in a countryside setting. Others cannot get to treatment for the reason of shortage of transportation or vast work and household tasks. In some areas, when a

There have been many problems with people not being to recognize a mental disorder when they see one. This causes issues because when someone wants help for it, others can’t help them because they don’t know what is wrong. One of the biggest problems in the lack of mental health literacy is that people doubt the effectiveness in medication and psychotherapy. Research has shown that the most effective way to treat a mental disorder is through taking medication and seeing a therapist. Through the media and word of mouth, there has been many doubts about this. People see only the negative side effects of medication and other forms of treatment.