A qualitative exploration of young people’s mental health needs in rural and regional Australia: engagement, empowerment and integration

BMC Psychiatry

Research

Margaret Yeung¹  Christiane Klinner¹  Alyssa Milton²  Nick Glozier²  Katrina Conn³ 

[1] Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;Australian Research Council (ARC), Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Sydney, Australia;Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;NSW Department of Education, NSW, Australia;

关键词: Youth mental health;    High school students;    Help-seeking;    Mental health education and support;    Rural and regional Australia;    Qualitative research;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-023-05209-6

 received in 2023-04-12, accepted in 2023-09-21,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAustralian rural and regional communities are marked by geographic isolation and increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters such as drought, bushfires and floods. These circumstances strain the mental health of their inhabitants and jeopardise the healthy mental and emotional development of their adolescent populations. Professional mental health care in these communities is often inconsistent and un-coordinated. While substantial research has examined the barriers of young people’s mental health and help-seeking behaviours in these communities, there is a lack of research exploring what adolescents in rural and regional areas view as facilitators to their mental health and to seeking help when it is needed. This study aims to establish an in-depth understanding of those young people’s experiences and needs regarding mental health, what facilitates their help-seeking, and what kind of mental health education and support they want and find useful.MethodWe conducted a qualitative study in 11 drought-affected rural and regional communities of New South Wales, Australia. Seventeen semi-structured (14 group; 3 individual) interviews were held with 42 year 9 and 10 high school students, 14 high school staff, and 2 parents, exploring participants’ experiences of how geographical isolation and natural disasters impacted their mental health. We further examined participants’ understandings and needs regarding locally available mental health support resources and their views and experiences regarding mental illness, stigma and help-seeking.ResultsThematic analysis highlighted that, through the lens of participants, young people’s mental health and help-seeking needs would best be enabled by a well-coordinated multi-pronged community approach consisting of mental health education and support services that are locally available, free of charge, engaging, and empowering. Participants also highlighted the need to integrate young people’s existing mental health supporters such as teachers, parents and school counselling services into such a community approach, recognising their strengths, limitations and own education and support needs.ConclusionsWe propose a three-dimensional Engagement, Empowerment, Integration model to strengthen young people’s mental health development which comprises: 1) maximising young people’s emotional investment (engagement); 2) developing young people’s mental health self-management skills (empowerment); and, 3) integrating mental health education and support programs into existing community and school structures and resources (integration).

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023