A qualitative study of help-seeking experiences leading up to a specialized service for youth at risk of psychosis

ABSTRACT

Background

Emerging research and early identification efforts have aimed to identify individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR). While specialized services for CHR are currently in place, there has been little examination of the subjective experience of those seeking help and accessing these services. The purpose of this article was to describe how initial mental health problems led young people at CHR to seek help, as well as their experiences with mental health care en route to a CHR service.

Methods

Eleven participants receiving care at a CHR service in Montreal, Canada were interviewed.

Results

Participants’ experiences with mental health difficulties resulted in barriers to their everyday activities, which eventually prompted them to seek out services. Long wait times and other challenges emerged when participants began their mental health care journey, while strong collaboration between services was a facilitator of rapid access to needed care.

Discussion

These experiences underscore the need for treatment planning of CHR service to be adaptable to the varied and changing experiences of young people at CHR.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical high risk for psychosis
• early intervention
• help-seeking
• access to care
• mental health experiences
• qualitative methods

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the contributions of Julie Le, Dr. Marie-Ève Blain-Juste, and Dr. Ian Gold to this work. S.V.M received funds for her graduate studies from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and ACCESS Open Minds. M.F received funding from the FRQS Chercheurs-boursiers (Junior 1) and the Healthy Brains Healthy Lives New Investigator Start-Up grant. S.I received funding by the FRQS and the CIHR New Investigator Salary Award. A.M is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program and received funds from the FRQS, NIH, Grand Challenges Canada, and CIHR. J.S has received honoraria for research consultations and lectures at conferences sponsored by Otsuka and Lundbeck Canada and Global in the past three years and received funding from the FRQS (Junior 2).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).