ArticleBMC psychiatry2014
Seeking informal and formal help for mental health problems in the community: a secondary analysis from a psychiatric morbidity survey in South London.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Examining the mental health services among people with mental disorders: a literature review.BMC psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to seeking and accessing mental health support in primary care and the community among female migrants in Europe: a "feminisms" systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2023Pooled it
- What are the barriers and facilitators to seeking help for mental health in NHS doctors: a systematic review and qualitative study.BMC psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Filipino help-seeking for mental health problems and associated barriers and facilitators: a systematic review.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2020Pooled it
- The help-seeking process and predictors of mental health care use among individuals with depressive symptoms: a machine learning approach.Frontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Shared Experience Versus Professional Expertise: Preferences for Features of Informal and Formal Mental Health Support Among College Students.The journal of behavioral health services & research · 2026Article
- Profiles of behavioral health service utilization among youth involved in the juvenile legal system.Health & justice · 2026Article
- Do all adolescents benefit equally from school-based mental health interventions? A subgroup analysis by depression severity at 12 and 18 months follow-up.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Mental health care utilization among middle-aged and older U.S. adults: Findings from the National Health Interview Survey.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Help-seeking Behaviors: Experiences and Perspectives of Young 1.5-Generation Bangladeshi Women in Toronto.The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmieres · 2025Article
- Mental Health Treatment of Individuals Seeking Holy Water Treatment in Ethiopia.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Mental health literacy among secondary school learners in Tshwane region 1: A quantitative study.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2025Article
- Mental health literacy and help-seeking: the mediating role of self-stigma and emotional intelligence.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Gaps and opportunities in mental health support for young people: a process evaluation of a multi component intervention.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Experiences of women living with cervical cancer in Ghana: challenges and coping strategies.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- Experiences of support for people who access voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations for self-harm: a qualitative study with stakeholder feedback.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Help-seeking intentions of UK construction workers: a cross-sectional study.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- 5-year mental health outcomes for children and adolescents presenting with psychiatric symptoms to general practitioners in England: a retrospective cohort study.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2024Article
- A community-based approach to identifying and prioritising young people's mental health needs in their local communities.Research involvement and engagement · 2023Article
- Help-seeking following a flooding event: a cross-sectional analysis of adults affected by flooding in England in winter 2013/14.European journal of public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BackgroundOnly 30-35% of people with mental health problems seek help from professionals. Informal help, usually from friends, family and religious leaders, is often sought but is under-researched. This study aimed to contrast patterns of informal and formal help-seeking using data from a community psychiatric morbidity survey (n=1692) (South East London Community Health (SELCOH) Study).MethodsPatterns of help-seeking were analysed by clinical, sociodemographic and socioeconomic indicators. Factors associated with informal and formal help-seeking were investigated using logistic regression. Cross-tabulations examined informal help-seeking patterns from different sources.Results`Cases¿ (n = 386) were participants who had scores of ¿ 12 on the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), indicating a common mental disorder. Of these, 40.1% had sought formal help, (of whom three-quarters (29%) had also sought informal help), 33.6% had sought informal help only and only 26.3% had sought no help. When controlling for non-clinical variables, severity, depression, suicidal ideas, functioning and longstanding illnesses were associated with formal rather than informal help-seeking. Age and ethnic group influenced sources of informal help used. Younger people most frequently sought informal help only whereas older people tended to seek help from their family. There were ethnic group differences in whether help was sought from friends, family or religious leaders.ConclusionsThis study has shown how frequently informal help is used, whether in conjunction with formal help or not. Among the `cases¿, over 60% had sought informal help, whether on its own or together with formal help. Severity was associated with formal help-seeking. Patterns of informal help use have been found. The use and effectiveness of informal help merit urgent research.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.