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Factors Promoting Use of Mental Health Services in a Rural Area of Australia
David Pierce* and Charlotte BrewerRural Health Academic Centre, University of Melbourne, Sydney, Australia
- *Corresponding Author:
- David Pierce
Rural Health Academic Centre
University of Melbourne, Sydney, Australia
E-mail: d.pierce@unimelb.edu.au
Received date: November 17, 2012; Accepted date: December 17, 2012; Published date: December 19, 2012
Citation: Pierce D, Brewer C (2012) Factors Promoting Use of Mental Health Services in a Rural Area of Australia. J Community Med Health Educ 2:190. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000190
Copyright: © 2012 Pierce D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
This paper reports research which identified a number of mental health help-seeking responses in a rural region of Australia. It describes the characteristics of services and of individual health professionals, as well as some Australian government initiatives that may promote help seeking behaviours. Focus group and individual interviews were undertaken. Participants included those who had personally experienced mental ill health, family and professional careers of individuals with mental ill health and individuals from rural culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The researchers found that while many previously reported factors, such as stigma, limited confidentiality, cost factors, and previous negative experiences with mental health care continue to inhibit help-seeking, a number of responses and initiatives may actively promote help-seeking behaviours. These include: mental health literacy; targeted government schemes; accessible information; continuity of care and affordable services. The paper concludes that promoting these help-seeking enablers may support more desirable outcomes for those experiencing mental-ill healths in rural areas of Australia.
