UC Santa Barbara

Help-seeking is the active process of searching for formal mental health services and an important first step to obtaining mental health care. Help-seeking can be influenced by individual, social, cultural, and structural factors that can help to facilitate or obstruct the process. Using a qualitative design, this study examined the lived experiences of eleven Latine parents who sought and accessed mental health services for their children to identify the factors that made their process easier or harder. A multiple case study approach was used to examine the similarities and differences across participants responses. Using thematic analysis, a total of eight themes were identified across the eleven interviews. Five themes were identified as facilitative and three themes as obstructive. The facilitative factors in participants’ help-seeking and realized access to mental health services included the following: Support from Social Networks, Being Persistent, Using Spirituality to Cope, Increase in Mental Health Literacy, and Positive Treatment Experience. Support from Social Networks referred to the emotional and practical support that participants received from their family, friends, spiritual leaders, or mental health professionals in their help-seeking of mental health services. Being Persistent referred to participants tenacity to find the mental health services they needed for their children. Using Spirituality to Cope referred to participants faith and use of prayer to overcome difficult moments in their help-seeking journeys. Increase in Mental Health Literacy referred to participants’ increased knowledge and understanding about mental health and mental health services. Positive Treatment Experience referred to the favorable outcomes and benefits that participant and their children experienced from using mental health services. The obstructive factors in participants’ help-seeking and realized access included the following: Limited Mental Health Literacy, Interference from Social Networks, and Structural Barriers to Treatment. Limited Mental Health Literacy referred to participants markedly reduced mental health background. Interference from Social Networks referred to social networks’ dismal views and reactions about participants help-seeking decisions. Finally, Structural Barriers to Treatment referred to the multiple challenges participants faced to access mental health services for their children. This study findings illustrate how individuals’ help-seeking can be facilitated or obstructed by diverse factors. Importantly, an understanding of these factors associated with help-seeking is necessary to strengthen the overall process of accessing care for parents of children with mental health concerns. Findings have implications for researchers, clinicians, educators, and policy makers committed to improving racial and ethnic minority populations’ access to formal mental health services.