- Title
- Making mental health help-seeking easier: a rural Australian perspective
- Creator
- Cheesmond, Natalie
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Rural residents are less likely to seek help for mental distress than their urban counterparts. Research has identified a number of attitudinal help-seeking barriers that may make mental health help-seeking more difficult for people living in rural areas. There is limited understanding, however, as to how changes in mental health services might lower these barriers and facilitate help-seeking. This research explores the mental health help-seeking barriers experienced by people living in rural Australia and the help-provider characteristics and environmental factors they believe would make mental health help-seeking easier. It considers the impact of different measures of rurality on mental health help-seeking behaviour preferences and seeks to better understand why some people struggle to seek help. The research acknowledges the rarity of enduring mental health and the high likelihood of brief periods of poor mental health. It drew on a novel approach that allowed people who had not experienced mental health help-seeking to contribute to the research and express their opinion with respect to future help-seeking. To do so, a cross-sectional survey based on people's perceptions, rather than actual experiences, explored mental health help-seeking behaviour. The survey design was framed by open, inclusive definitions of ‘mental health’ and ‘help-seeking’. The research surveyed adults living in the town of Wee Waa, New South Wales, via a traditional paper survey and adults living in 348 other rural NSW towns via an online survey advertised through social media. The study found that people living in rural New South Wales believe that there are many ways in which rural mental health services can increase the likelihood of their seeking help when experiencing mental distress. They perceive the need for service improvement, recognise the current shortcomings of services, and are deeply impacted by previous help-seeking experiences. They value professionalism in help-providers and are influenced by the environment and timing of the help-seeking encounter. Perceived and actual commonality between help-seeker and provider encourages them to seek help, as does the likeability, trustworthiness, and empathy of the help-provider. The research recommends increasing and promoting ‘peer’ relationships between help-seeker and provider, introducing flexible help-seeking options and further research into the impact of previous help-seeking experience on help-seeking behaviour.
- Subject
- mental health; help-seeking; rural; mental; attitudinal; barriers; facilitators
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1421841
- Identifier
- uon:37774
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Natalie Cheesmond
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 21 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 399 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |