Help-seeking: The development of a youth mental health help-seeking decision aid

This study is funded by a grant from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust charitable committee. 

Study information

Study Background: Research has shown that most mental health problems emerge during adolescence, but young people are the least likely to seek help for their problems. A reluctance to seek help largely stems from lack of appropriate information and stigma. This study aims to produce a user-friendly decision aid with linked information about seeking help, and self-help. This will guide young people in decisions about help-seeking for mental health. 

Study aim: This research aims to find out your views on questionnaires that check for mental health problems, and about guidance for getting help. It also aims to find out your views about the development of a decision aid for young people to use themselves to guide them in their decision to seek help. The outcome of the research project will be to produce this decision aid working with young people, so that young people in the future can use this on their own to help them decide if they have a problem, and if they do, who to turn to for help.

Participants:

• 16-26 years old
• Young person using mental health services or young person not using mental health services 

Study design: Taking part would involve taking part in a discussion group with other young people who use mental health services, telling us your views about screening questionnaires for mental health, your experiences of help-seeking, and the sorts of information and guidance that would be helpful for young people seeking help for mental health problems. There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s what you think that matters. The group discussion would be led by 2 researchers and would take 60- 90 minutes with a short break in the middle. 

The discussion will be tape recorded so that we can remember what you’ve said accurately, but we will store the tape in an anonymous way so that you cannot be identified. We will also ask you to provide further feedback on the decision aid as we develop it on 2 further occasions. You can choose whether you would prefer to do this by telephone or email. Each feedback session will take 15- 30 minutes.

This study has now finished.

This page will be updated with a brief summary of the results when they are available.

Contact information: 

If you would like more information on this study, please contact Kathryn Greenwood:

Professor Kathryn Greenwood

E-mail: k.e.greenwood@sussex.ac.uk

Phone: 07900961587