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Awareness of treatment history in family and friends, and mental health care seeking propensity

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology volume 52, pages 485–492 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Many adults suffering from mental disorders never receive the care they need. The role of family and friends in overcoming mental health treatment barriers is poorly understood. We investigated the association between awareness of lifetime mental health treatment history in one’s family or friends, and likelihood of having recently received mental health care for oneself.

Methods

Using Canadian Community Health Survey 2012—Mental Health data, we defined care seekers as individuals who talked about mental health issues to at least one health professional in the past 12 months. Seekers were matched to non-seekers based on estimated care seeking propensity, and 1933 matched pairs were created. Reported awareness of lifetime treatment history in family and friends was compared between seekers and non-seekers.

Results

There were no differences in the distribution of any confounder of interest between seekers and non-seekers. 73% of seekers were aware of treatment history in family or friends, compared to only 56% of non-seekers (RR 1.3; 95% CI 1.2, 1.3). Awareness of treatment history in family members had nearly identical associations with care seeking as awareness of treatment history in friends.

Conclusions

We have found a social clustering of mental health care seeking behavior; individuals who were aware of lifetime treatment history in family or friends were more likely to have recently sought care for themselves. These novel results are consistent with a social learning model of care seeking behavior, and could inform efforts to bridge the current mental health treatment gap.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Gabrielle Galley, Dylan Johnson, Nathalie MacKinnon, Kiyuri Naicker, and Ewa Sucha for their methodological advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada

    François L. Thériault & Ian Colman

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  1. François L. Thériault
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  2. Ian Colman
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Correspondence to Ian Colman.

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Sources of financial support

This research was funded in part by financial support from the Canada Research Chairs program for Ian Colman.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Thériault, F.L., Colman, I. Awareness of treatment history in family and friends, and mental health care seeking propensity. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 52, 485–492 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-017-1349-1

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