Pathways to mental health consultations: A study from a tertiary care setting in India

Abstract

Background: Research indicates that help seeking for mental health is low and often delayed. Understanding pathways to care is crucial to facilitate mental health referrals and reduce the time to consultation. Methods: In the present study, 63 individuals were assessed on illness severity, attitudes towards help-seeking and pathways-to-care. Results: Multiple pathways for therapy were noted, a delayed-pathway, two-step referral pathway and a direct-pathway. Most prominent pathway was the delayed-pathway. The direct-pathway had least treatment delay, contributed by timely recognition of symptoms by the patient. As first point of contact, patients preferred psychiatrists and popularly sought information about treatment via media. Conclusions: There are multiple pathways to consultations, often leading to treatment delay in care received. Timely recognition of symptoms was associated a direct pathway and the least delay. These findings have implications for strengthening routes to mental health specialists at early stages and increasing awareness about treatment available.

Does media content have an impact on help-seeking behaviors for mental illness? A systematic review

“…Respondents to Reavley et al ’s (2011) study who had used mental health services in the past 12 months were more likely to get information from all sources except radio, including the internet, non-fiction books, pamphlets/leaflets/brochures ( P < 0.001), television ( P < 0.01) and newspapers/magazines ( P < 0.05). However, it should be noted that unlike Mellotte et al (2017) and Goyal et al (2021), these respondents did not explicitly cite media as an influence on their decision to seek help.…”

“…In two cross-sectional studies (Reavley et al , 2011; Goyal et al , 2021) and a mixed methods study (Mellotte et al , 2017), a specific media intervention was not examined; instead, participants were asked more open questions about what influenced their mental health seeking behaviours. Goyal et al (2021) explored sources of information that influenced 63 mental health service outpatients’ decisions to seek help. The primary source of information sought was “media” (95%; n = 61).…”