Wijerathnage Somarathna Chandrasekara
Volume 4, Issue 7 , July 2017, , Pages 780-795
Abstract
Stigma associated with mental illness is identified as a potential barrier for seeking psychological help for mental health disorders. The purpose of this study is to assess the perceived barriers and supporting factors and to find out the strategies to promote the help seeking behavior among university ...
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Stigma associated with mental illness is identified as a potential barrier for seeking psychological help for mental health disorders. The purpose of this study is to assess the perceived barriers and supporting factors and to find out the strategies to promote the help seeking behavior among university students. 16 in-depth interviews were conducted with students and students’ counselors from three state universities in Sri Lanka. Already developed and tested three questionnaires on help seeking behavior were used to develop guidelines. Barriers, supporting factors and strategies to promote counseling services were investigated. According to the findings, the most significant barrier for seeking counseling services is mental illness stigma. Males have a greater level of mental illness stigma than female. The rest of barriers are reluctance to share their problems with counselors, self-dependency, lack of trust on counselors, and lack of awareness about services availability. Most significant supporting factors are availability of free counseling services, proximity, and easy access to the counseling service. The strategies for promoting counseling services are promoting mental health education among students; making easy access to counselors; and developing a good relationship between students and counselors.
Zhi-xia Chen; Wijerathnage Somarathna Chandrasekara
Volume 3, Issue 11 , November 2016, , Pages 720-734
Abstract
Stigmatizing attitudes toward psychological help seeking is a significant obstacle for the people with mental health difficulties to obtain sufficient psychological help. Therefore, this paper examines the psychological mechanism of stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness and help seeking ...
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Stigmatizing attitudes toward psychological help seeking is a significant obstacle for the people with mental health difficulties to obtain sufficient psychological help. Therefore, this paper examines the psychological mechanism of stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness and help seeking performance. Data were gathered using already developed and validated scales with modifications. They are; mental Health Service Utilization Questions (MHSUQ), the Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS), Griffith’s public stigma sacle, Griffith’s self stigma scale, perceived need and utilization theory of mental health services, and General Help Seeking Questionnaire – Vignette Version (GHSQ-V). 600 students were interviewed from three state universities in Sri Lanka. The interviews were done based on three vignettes of young persons with a mental disorder consisting with statement show much they agree or not agree for each statement. Additionally, demographic information was collected. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 19) and AMOS 20 software. Outcomes suggest that public stigma, and self stigma make influence on help seeking behavior negatively whereas public stigma makes greater influences on help seeking behavior negatively than self-stigma. However, in all vignettes, ‘dangerous person’ is the most responded item in both public stigma and self-stigma. It was found that female students have more positive attitudes, intention and actual help seeking behavior that male students. Further, results indicate that stigma reduction programs are more essential to effectively increase of help-seeking behavior among students. Results further suggest that policy makers to make interventions to change public attitudes towards mental illnesses rather than self-attitudes.
Wijerathnage Somarathna Chandrasekara
Volume 3, Issue 4 , April 2016, , Pages 233-245
Abstract
Though there is a high level of mental health related difficulties among university students, only one third of them seek psychological help despite the evidence-based treatments for mental health problems. Therefore, this paper examines the help seeking attitudes towards psychological help services ...
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Though there is a high level of mental health related difficulties among university students, only one third of them seek psychological help despite the evidence-based treatments for mental health problems. Therefore, this paper examines the help seeking attitudes towards psychological help services and willingness to seek psychological help based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral control were measured using the Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS). Barriers for seeking psychological help were measured using Mental Health Service Utilization Questions (MHSUQ) whereas intention to seek psychological help was measured using the General Help Seeking Questionnaire – Vignette Version (GHSQ-V). 600 students were interviewed from three Sri Lankan state universities from January 2015 to March 2015. Results suggested that positive attitudes towards psychological help service positively associate with greater willingness to seek psychological help. Further, female students show a greater attitude seeking psychological help than male students. The most common barrier reported by students was that the fear of what relatives, friends might think. In contrast, students who follow psychology as a subject have a significantly higher level of positive attitude towards seeking psychological help than the students who do not follow. Findings suggest that mental health campaigns are required to focus their attention to change the negative attitudes towards mental health services among university students. Further, it highlights the importance of changing the public attitudes towards mental illnesses.
