Perceived needs for mental health care and barriers to treatment across age groups

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study aimed to assess responses to a structured measure of perceived need for treatment to understand whether differences in treatment uptake across age groups are related to differences in: (1) perceived need for mental health care; (2) perceptions of treatment needs being met; and/or (3) perceived attitudinal and structural treatment barriers.

Methods: Data from a nationally representative sample of the Australian population (2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing) were analysed using logistic and multinomial regression. All participants potentially benefiting from mental health services were included in analyses; including those reporting symptoms of mental disorders, using mental health services, or self-reporting significant mental health problems in the past 12 months (n = 5733). All regression analyses were adjusted for gender, the presence of chronic physical health conditions, disorder type, and disorder severity.

Results: Older adults were the least likely to report any perceived need for mental health care, and specifically reported lower needs for psychotherapy, information about available services, and support improving their ability to work. Older adults perceiving a need for mental health care were also the most likely to report having these needs met. There were no differences in attitudinal and structural barriers to treatment across age groups.

Conclusions: These results highlight that age needs to be considered in strategies for improving engagement and efficacy of mental health services, as well as the need for further research to understand what drives age differences in perceived need for mental health care.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• age differences
• perceived needs
• barriers to treatment
• NSMHWB

Acknowledgments

The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was funded by the National Health Branch of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, Under the National Mental Health Strategy. It was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1. We also examined the results using a count variable to consider whether the number of current chronic health conditions impacted on the results — for example, due to a higher likelihood of being in contact with health care services. The count variable did not affect the direction, significance, or interpretation of the results. The results controlling for the dichotomous (present/absent) variable are reported here due to conceptual issues with the count variable: the survey data individually coded the presence of only six specific health conditions in the past 12 months, and the remaining 15 health conditions were assessed with a single variable (i.e. collapsed into a count of one). Given the consistency in the two sets of results, we felt that the presence or absence of any chronic health condition in the past 12 months was the best way to operationalise contact with health care services.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was funded by the National Health Branch of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, Under the National Mental Health Strategy.