Help-Seeking and Barriers to Service Use amongst Men with Past-Year Suicidal Ideation and not in Contact with Mental Health Services

Abstract

Objective

Men are less likely than women to engage with formal mental health services for suicidality. We describe the sources of support, barriers to service use, and coping strategies of men with past-year suicidal ideation who are not receiving formal mental health services.

Method

Australian men experiencing past-year suicidal ideation who also did not receive formal mental health services within the past year (n = 176) completed a survey that assessed help-seeking behaviors, coping strategies and styles, use of general services, barriers to service use, and individual-level characteristics. Analyses included descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses.

Results

The most common type of support was self-help resources, and self-reliance was the most common barrier to formal mental health service use. Most participants had seen a GP for non-mental-health-related reasons in the past year. Men who did not seek any help for their suicidality experienced lower instrumental barriers and perceived need for support, and lower levels of certain coping styles. Limitations included a cross-sectional design and small sample size.

Conclusion

The current study provides insight into the help-seeking experiences of men with past-year suicidality and not receiving formal mental health services. The findings suggest it may be helpful to improve the linkage between online and informal sources of support and evidence-based interventions.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Online self-help, friends, and partners were the most commonly used sources of help.

• A subset of men (42%) with lower perceived need for help did not seek any support.

• Despite no past-year formal mental health service use, 80% of the men had seen a GP.

Keywords:

• Cross-sectional survey
• help-seeking
• men
• mental health services
• suicide

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Under the Radar Core Codesign Team for their contributions to the design of this study. We would also like to thank Ashlee Negrone for her assistance with data cleaning.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data will be made available upon request. For all data requests, please contact the corresponding author together with the UNSW Human Research Ethics Committee ([email protected]) with the study approval number (HC210447).

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Australia (grant number: 1200195). PB is supported by an NHMRC Fellowship (1158707). JH is supported by a Commonwealth Suicide Prevention Research Fund Post-Doctoral Fellowship. AN is supported by a Suicide Prevention Australia Post-Doctoral Fellowship. HC is supported by an NHMRC Fellowship (1155614). The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Natalie M. Reily

Natalie M. Reily, PhD, Samantha Tang, PhD, Bani Aadam, BA, Fiona Shand, PhD, and Jin Han, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Samantha Tang

Natalie M. Reily, PhD, Samantha Tang, PhD, Bani Aadam, BA, Fiona Shand, PhD, and Jin Han, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Philip J. Batterham

Philip J. Batterham, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia and Centre for Mental Health Research, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Bani Aadam

Natalie M. Reily, PhD, Samantha Tang, PhD, Bani Aadam, BA, Fiona Shand, PhD, and Jin Han, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Brian Draper

Brian Draper, MD, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Fiona Shand

Natalie M. Reily, PhD, Samantha Tang, PhD, Bani Aadam, BA, Fiona Shand, PhD, and Jin Han, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Jin Han

Natalie M. Reily, PhD, Samantha Tang, PhD, Bani Aadam, BA, Fiona Shand, PhD, and Jin Han, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Angela Nicholas

Angela Nicholas, PhD, Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Helen Christensen

Helen Christensen, PhD, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia and Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.