Help-seeking knowledge
Over a quarter of survey respondents admitted that their understanding of how to access a health professional is “not good at all”, while a further 32% rated their understanding as “Ok”.
Nearly half of the sample (46%) rated their understanding of “Who to talk to if you are going through a tough time” as either “Ok” or “not good at all”. This finding is in keeping with the experience ReachOut.com has had when talking to young people through our
community engagement work and it is also in keeping with the findings of partner agencies like Headstrong.
More encouragingly, the highest levels of self-reported understanding related to “How to help a friend who is going through a tough time” with 30, 25 and 10% respectively reporting “good”, “very good” or “excellent” understanding. It would seem that there is a strong level of confidence across the sample in the ability to support someone else which should be reinforced and facilitated by support services.
Figure 11 – How would you rate your understanding of:
Excellent Very good Good Ok
Not good at all
n=189 Who to talk to
if you are going through a tough time How to access a health professional How to help a friend who’s going through a tough time Where else to look for information on getting through a tough time 100 80 60 40 20 0 6 12 25 25 32 18 9 26 10 37 25 30 7 28 10 10 29 15 34 7 15
%
Help-seeking preferences
Many young people who are in need of support never actually access it; therefore, understanding the help-seeking preferences of young people will help us to develop and promote services and supports in ways that will make them accessible, and encourage the use of services. To find out about help-seeking preferences, participants were asked how likely they are/would be to talk to a range of people and services when/if they were going through a tough time. A tough time was explained to respondents as: “a time when you might feel anxious, stressed or down and need extra support”. Figure 12 below shows how likely or unlikely respondents were to look for help from a range of possible supports if/when they were going through a tough time.
Figure 12 – How likely are you to look for help from the following to get through a
tough time?
Very unlikely / unlikely Very likely / likely
n=220
Friend Parent
Family friend / r elative Health pr
ofessionalTeacher Telephone counselling
ReachOut.comOther websitesBook / magazineSocial network Email / online counselling
100 80 60 40 20 0 61 39 24 76 19 81 32 69 9 91 17 83 61 39 57 43 39 61 31 69 19 81
%
Where people are likely to turn
Unsurprisingly, a ‘friend’ was reported by 61% of the sample as a “likely” or “very likely” source of support – the same proportion of respondents that said they would seek help through ReachOut.com. Notwithstanding the bias in the sample, these results emphasise the importance of facilitating help and support in everyday places and everyday settings – support must be available to young people in the places and settings where they interact on a day-to- day basis. While ‘other websites’ (i.e. other than ReachOut.com) were reported as a “likely” or “very likely” source of support by 57% of respondents it is noteworthy that ‘online counselling’ and ‘social network’ were less likely to be identified as a possible source of support. These results highlight the need to refine our collective understanding of the online environment in the context of mental health support whereby important differences in the nature of online supports are more fully understood in the same way, for example, that ‘face-to-face’ support services can range from sharing a cup of tea with someone to psychiatric assessment and intervention. There is a very real and important opportunity to harness this willingness to turn to websites like ReachOut.com for help and support through a tough time, and to foster online communities that provide safe and supportive spaces to get information and / or communicate about mental health issues. The online environment is simply an extension of everyday space for many of us. In the same way societies learn to negotiate the most appropriate ways to deal with, discuss, and respond to sensitive issues in face-to-face interaction, we are currently in the process of figuring out what works online. Throughout this process, the most important thing is that people are safe and feel supported, especially those people who may feel they have nowhere else to turn, who are withdrawn or are beginning to isolate themselves. At a time when international research is showing that a virtual presence is akin to a physical presence for young children (Tarasuick et al., 2011) it is more important than ever to ensure there is a safe and well moderated online service for young people to get mental health information and advice. Where people are unlikely to turn
A large majority of the respondents (many of whom are students) reported that they were “very unlikely” or “unlikely” to turn to a teacher for support. ReachOut.com is working with organisations within the education sector to ensure that teachers are supported in their work with young people to be able to identify and respond to mental health need. From this perspective, ReachOut.com now incorporates a “Teacher’s section” which provides access to mental health information relevant to the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum.
Help-seeking behaviour
To explore previous help-seeking behaviour, respondents were asked to report with who (if anyone) they have ever spoken to get help through a tough time. Many respondents had spoken to more than one person while 13% of respondents indicated that they had either “never” or “not yet” spoken to anyone to get help through a tough time. Interestingly, the main reasons cited for this were not that they have never gone through a tough time, but instead related to embarrassment or the view that they could “handle it myself”.
Significantly, over a third of respondents have spoken to a health professional to get help through a tough time. This is higher than would be expected in a general population sample and suggests that many visitors to ReachOut.com are looking for mental health support and information from a variety of sources. It has always been envisaged that ReachOut.com can provide complementary support to other support services and this finding is in keeping with that overall model of integrated support.
Figure 13 – Have you ever spoken with any of the following to get help through a tough time?
As the percentage of respondents that had already spoken to a health professional for help in dealing with a tough time was quite high (35%) it was decided to look at help-seeking preferences among that particular sub-group. Worryingly, of those who have spoken to a health professional in the past, 41% would be “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to look for help from a professional to get help through a tough time in the future.
Yes A family
friend A friend A health professional Someone else
n=154 100 80 60 40 20 0 55% 72% 35% 35%