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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Age, gender, and the underutilization of mental health services
— the influence of help-seeking attitudes | | Author(s) | C S Mackenzie, W L Gekoski, V J Knox |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 10, no 6, November 2006 |
| Pages | pp 574-582 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Psychiatric treatment ; Usage [services] ; Attitude ; Age groups [elderly] ; Older men ; Older women ; Social surveys ; Canada. |
| Annotation | Age and gender differences in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were explored, also whether attitudes negatively influence intentions to seek help among older adults and men, whose mental health needs are underserved. Data collection took place at the railway station of a small city in Ontario, Canada, the recruitment location providing access to adults across the age range. Participants were 120 men and 120 women aged 18-89 (24.5% aged 60+). They completed questionnaires measuring help-seeking attitudes, psychiatric symptomatology, previous help-seeking, and intentions to seek help. Older age and female gender were associated with more positive help-seeking attitudes in this sample, although age and gender interacted with marital status and education, and had varying influences on different attitude components. Age and gender also influenced intentions to seek professional psychological help. Women exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from mental health professionals than men, likely due to their positive attitudes concerning psychological openness. Older people exhibited more favourable intentions to seek help from primary care general practitioners (GPs) than younger adults, a finding that was not explained by age differences in attitudes. Results form this study suggest that negative attitudes related to psychological openness might contribute to men's underutilisation of mental health services. Help-seeking attitudes do not appear to be a barrier to seeking professional help in older people, although their intention to visit GPs might be. These findings suggest the need for education to improve men's help-seeking attitudes and to enhance older people's willingness to seek speciality mental health services. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-061211205 A |
| Classmark | LP: QLD: DP: BB: BC: BD: 3F: 7S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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