Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Essay

AbstractAccording to the World Health giving medication an estimated cc million people globally are affected by safe intellectual wellness problems, however, research evidence indicates that only around one-third of those experiencing moral health difficulties actually try on treatment. A trope of psycho-social and demographic termntive roles have been found to explain magnetic variation in attitudes towards, and intentions to, follow upk mental help. This chew over sought to examine the association between attitudes towards want mental health services and intentions to engage in psychological pleader. The savor for the circulating(prenominal) breeding consisted of 331 active and retired members of the national practice of law force of the commonwealth of Ireland. It was predicted that psychological openness, help- seek propensity, and indifference to stigma would all positively predict intentions to get into in psychological counselling, after controlling for a ge, gender and personality cistrons.The results showed that finale AbstractIntroductionAccording to the World Health Organisation an estimated 200 million people globally are affected by serious mental health problems (Mollica, 2000). Available selective information, however, suggests that only around one-third of those experiencing mental health difficulties actually make treatment contact (Kessler et al., 2009). This is of concern non only beca exercise of the deleterious impact on case-by-cases lives, only if also because of the associated economic and societal costs of untreated mental health problems (Kessler et al., 2009). A number of psycho-social and demographic factors have been found to explain variation in attitudes towards, and intentions to, seek psychological help (e.g., Bartels, 2003 Segal, Coolidge, Mincic, & ORiley, 2005 Vogel, Wester, Wei, & Boysen, 2005). How favourable and effective one believes psychological counselling to be, ones own imprint in their c apacity to engage in counselling, and perceptions of subsequent social rejection pursuance counselling attendance, have been identified as grammatical constituenticularly influential (e.g., Hyland, McLaughlin, Boduszek, & Prentice, 2012 Vogel & Wester, 2003). research also suggests that females may be earthshakingly much likely than males to toy with favourable attitudes towards utilising mental health services (e.g., Chandra & Minkovitz 2006 Raunic & Xenos, 2008), although some studies have shown that males and females do not differ in their attitudes or intentions towards the utilisation of mental health services (e.g., Kelly & Achter, 1995 Vogel & Wester, 2003). Additionally, personality factors have been suggested to impact upon individuals help-seeking attitudes and intentions. Jagdeo, Cox, Stein, and Sareen (2009) found that antisocial personality disorder was associated with greater negative attitudes towards help-seeking using data from the US subject area Comorbidity S urvey (NCS) (n = 5877) and the Ontario Health Survey (OHS) (n = 6902). Given the disparity between mental health service needs and service utilization a more comprehensive understanding of the factors involved in counselling-seeking behaviour is required.The Inventory of Attitudes toward seek Mental Health function (IASMHS Mackenzie, Knox, Gekoski, & Macaulay, 2004) is a 24-item scale designed to measure out the attitudinal factors that influence the seeking of mental health services. This scale was developed ground upon Fisher and Turners (1970) Attitudes toward Seeking Professional psychological financial aid Scale. The scale was developed with a clear theoretical foundation, and its increasing use in research (James & Buttle, 2008 Loya, Reddy, & Hinshaw, 2010 Mackenzie, Gekoski, & Knox, 2006 Mojaverian, Hashimoto, & Kim, 2012 Floersch et al., 2009). The IASMHS initially included 41-items, however the results an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using maximum likelihood esti mation among a have of 208 adult volunteers (Mackenzie et al., 2004) reduced the number of items in the scale to 24.Results indicated that the 24-item scale could be explained in terms of common chord correlated factors, which accounted for 43% of variance (a) Psychological Openness (the degree to which an individual is open to acknowledging the presence of a psychological problem and to seek professional care for such a problem), (b) Help-Seeking relish (ones willingness and comprehend ability to seek help for psychological problems), and (c) insensibility to Stigma (how implicated an individual would feel were significant another(prenominal)s to discover that they were receiving psychological care).Internal consistency coefficients for the IASMHS subscales were reported to be good with Cronbachs alphas of .82 (psychological openness), .76 (help-seeking propensity), and .79 (indifference to stigma). calculate correlations were moderate with r values ranging from .37 to .47. In the same paper, using an self-sufficing adjudicate of 293 undergraduate university students and employing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) techniques, Mackenzie and colleagues (2004) reported that they replicated the three-factor answer indicated by the EFA. Model fit was acceptable and factor correlations ranged from r = .26 to .43. The current study aims to assess the degree to which intentions to participate in psychological counselling can be predicted by attitudes towards seeking mental health services. Specifically, it was predicted that psychological openness, help-seeking propensity, and indifference to stigma would all positively predict intentions to participate in psychological counselling, after controlling for age, gender and personality factors.MethodParticipantsThe sample for the current study consisted of 331 (Males n = 202 Females n = 129) active and retired members of the national police force of the Republic of Ireland. Of the officers recruited, 302 (91 %) were currently serving members of the Irish police force, spot 29 (9%) were retired. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 77 years, with an average age of 28.41 years (SD = 8.63). Just under half(prenominal) the sample of officers were stationed in boorish areas (45%, n = 149), 41% were stationed in suburban areas (n = 136), and 14% were stationed in urban areas (n = 46). The majority of officers who participated in this study were recent entrants into the police service with 63% of respondents indicating that they had been serving for two years or less (n = 209). Approximately half were married (48%, n = 159), while the remaining participants either resided with parents (27%, n = 89), lived with other family members (3%, n = 10), or lived alone (22%, n = 73).ProcedureThe majority of study participants were recruited during a training seminar (n = 259), while the remaining officers were recruited via formal written requests (n = 72). fascinate authorization was granted from the relevantofficials to carry out the study. In total, 532 members were approached to round(a) the research questionnaire, and 365 volunteered their participation (68%). However due to overwhelming missing data in 34 returned surveys only 331 responses were retained for the final analysis (62%).Participants were required to complete an anonymous self-report, paper-and-pencil questionnaire booklet which included an instruction sheet and a consent form attached to the front of the booklet. Participants were assured about confidentiality and conscious that their participation was voluntary. Completed questionnaires were returned by the participants to their superior officer in squiffy envelopes, and were subsequently returned to the principal investigator.MeasuresThe Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS Mackenzie et al., 2004) is a 24-item scale designed to measure an individuals attitudes towards seeking mental health services. The IASMHS was develo ped in order to measure three factors labeled (a) Psychological openness, (b) Help-seeking propensity, and (c) Indifference to stigma. Psychological openness reflects the degree to which an individual is open to acknowledging the presence of a psychological problem and to seek professional care for such a problem. Help-seeking propensity reflects ones willingness and perceived ability to seek help for psychological problems. Indifference to stigma refers to how concerned an individual would feel if significant others were to discover that they were receiving psychological care. Each factor is proposed to be measured via 8 items and each item is measured using a five set Likert-scale ranging from 0 (dis moderate) to 4 (agree).Intentions to Participate in Psychological Counselling Intentions were measured as part of a larger questionnaire designed to measure the various constructs of the Theory of think Behavior (Ajzen, 1991). This questionnaire was constructed according to the guid elines set forth by Ajzen (1991, 2002). The questionnaire was based upon a fictitious scenario which included the four elements of time, context, action, and target, as proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1977). The scenario describes an event that took perspective six weeks previously in which an individual witnesses a severe routetraffic accident. In the intervening six weeks this individual begins to experience significant personality changes.The individual is reported to now experience prolonged periods of original sadness, lack of energy, distressing thoughts related to the traumatic event, reduced interest in normally pleasurable activities, severe panic attacks while outside, and refusal to leave the put up even for work. A friend of this individual attends a G.P. about the press and the G.P. recommends that the described person should attend a professional psychologist for counselling at bottom the abutting week. An appointment is thus made for next week. Participants in t his study are asked to place themselves in the position of this fictitious person and to complete the questions that follow (see Appendix A for the full vignette).Behavioural intentions were measured via three items (Cronbachs alpha = .77). 1. How likely is it that you would intend to go along to see a professional psychologist for counseling within the next week if you were in Terrys position? 2. You will try to participate in counseling with a professional psychologist within the next week. 3. You have immovable to participate in counseling with a professional psychologist within the next week. Each item was measured along a seven point Likert scale ranging from 1 (extremely unlikely) to 7 (extremely likely) and the scores on the three questions were summed. high scores on this scale indicate stronger intentions to engage in counselling.