Seeking help for psychological distress: Barriers for mental health professionals

Abstract

Objective

Mental health care is a demanding profession with high rates of stress and burnout. Given the implications of untreated illness, it is essential that mental health professionals feel able to seek help from appropriate service providers when required. This study investigated perceived barriers to disclosure and help‐seeking within this population.

Methods

A sample of 98 Australian mental health professionals and students (clinicians in training) completed an online survey assessing help‐seeking intentions and past behaviour, barriers to accessing care for mental ill health, and concerns regarding disclosure of mental health problems.

Results

Results indicated that while the majority of participants (89%) would seek help if they were distressed, 57% acknowledged that there had been a time when they would have benefited from seeking help but had not done so. Reported barriers to seeking help included wanting to solve the problem on their own, fear about colleagues finding out, and the potential for negative consequences relating to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency's mandatory reporting requirement.

Conclusions

The findings provide initial evidence that despite good mental health literacy, and personal experience with mental illness, significant barriers exist for mental health professionals seeking help for mental health conditions. This is a significant area requiring further attention. Future research to better understand the perceived barriers and association between attitudes toward mental illness and help‐seeking in this population is required. Education around mandatory reporting requirements may help to improve help‐seeking behaviour.

Key words:

• barriers
• help‐seeking
• mental health professionals
• psychological distress

What is already known about this topic?

1. Mental health care is a demanding profession with high rates of stress and burnout.

2. There is a general reluctance amongst mental health professionals to disclose personal mental illness to colleagues or to seek formal mental health treatment.

3. Mental health professionals can display stigma and other negative attitudes towards mental illness despite high mental health literacy.

What this topic adds?

1. While mental health professionals may hold positive intentions toward seeking help for mental illness, this is not necessarily consistent with behaviour.

2. ‘Wanting to solve the problem on their own’ was the most common reason for not seeking help.

3. A majority of participants reported that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency mandatory reporting requirements would act as a barrier to them disclosing to their workplace if they were experiencing distress and/or seeking help.

Each year approximately 20% of Australians experience some form of mental illness (Whiteford et al., 2014). Mental illness does not discriminate; it affects people of all ages, races, professions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. However, at any one time, less than half (46%) of those individuals affected by mental illness are engaged in treatment (Whiteford et al., 2014). The underutilization of services is of concern given that absent or delayed help seeking may result in poorer prognosis for recovery, increased symptom severity, and greater damage to psychosocial functioning (Clement et al., 2012). Consequently, research has focused on understanding help seeking behaviour and the (potential) barriers that may prevent help seeking in the general community. More specifically, investigation has focused on understanding the help seeking behaviour of specific sociodemographic groups, including males (Addis & Mahalik, 2003), children and adolescents (Rickwood, Thomas, & Bradford, 2012), older adults (Mackenzie, Gekoski, & Knox, 2006), different cultural groups (Chen & Mak, 2008), residents of rural versus metropolitan areas (Jackson et al., 2007), and individuals within different professions (e.g., doctors, lawyers; White, Shiralkar, Hassan, Galbraith, & Callaghan, 2006). However, one area that has largely been overlooked is the help seeking behaviour of mental health professionals who experience psychological distress.

Although there is limited information available about the mental health of Australian mental health professionals, it is acknowledged that, in general, mental health professionals have high rates of stress and burnout (Di Benedetto & Swadling, 2014; Morse, Salyers, Rollins, Monroe‐DeVita, & Pfahler, 2012) and experience issues such as isolation (Kleespies et al., 2011), vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, and a lessened sense of personal accomplishment in their careers (Emerson & Markos, 1996; Katsavdakis, Gabbard, & Athey, 2004). Studies from the USA have found that mental health professionals are at high risk of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidality (Kleespies et al., 2011; Pilowski & O'Sullivan, 1989; White et al., 2006).

The prevalence of mental health issues in mental health professionals is problematic on at least three levels: the morbidity and mortality of the individuals; the potentially detrimental effect of untreated illness on the quality of patient care; and the damage done by untreated providers to the general public's perception of, and confidence in, the mental health care industry (Smith & Moss, 2009). Therefore, it is highly desirable on both a personal and professional level that mental health professionals feel comfortable disclosing when they are not coping, and feel able to seek help from appropriate service providers.

Help seeking behaviour of mental health professionals

Although mental health professionals may experience elevated levels of distress compared to other professions, research indicates that there is a general reluctance to disclose having a mental illness to colleagues (Gras et al., 2014) or to seek formal mental health treatment (Abbey et al., 2011). Furthermore, it has been found that there is a steady decrease in help seeking behaviours correlated with the length of time out of university, despite an acknowledgement that there is an increase in the need for psychological support (King, Cockcroft, & Gooch, 1992). This decrease in help seeking for more experienced professionals has been attributed to the stigma associated of having a mental illness (King et al., 1992). In contrast, Bearse, McMinn, Seegobin, and Free (2013) surveyed psychologists practicing in North America and found that most participants (86%) had been in therapy at some point during their life, suggesting that psychologists do seek help for mental health concerns at a higher rate than the general population. Furthermore, those who engaged in treatment reported promising results and acknowledged significant benefits from the experience, including a considerable personal improvement and a strong positive influence on their development as a therapist (Bearse et al., 2013). However, 59% of these participants also reported that there was a time in their life when they would have benefited from therapy but did not seek help.

When mental health professionals are impaired it can have a detrimental effect on the quality of their work, including an increased number of cancelled, late, or missed therapy appointments (Sherman & Thelen, 1998; Tyessen, Røvik, Vaglum, Grønvold, & Ekeberg, 2004). Mental health professionals who are preoccupied with personal problems are typically not able to use their skills effectively and their therapeutic effectiveness can suffer (Sherman & Thelen, 1998). In light of potential for a high prevalence of mental health conditions and psychological distress within this population, it is therefore important to examine the perceived barriers that may drive poor help‐seeking behaviour.

Barriers to seeking help for mental illness

Stigma is a key barrier to seeking treatment for mental illness (Abbey et al., 2011; Corrigan, 2004). One of the main causes of stigma towards mental illness is a lack of mental health literacy (Reavely & Jorm, 2014); however, research has shown that mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and allied health professionals, can also hold negative attitudes towards mental illness despite having high mental health literacy (Bayar, Poyraz, Aksoy‐Poyraz, & Arikan, 2009; Corrigan, 2000; Gras et al., 2014; Jorm, 2014; Jorm, Korten, Jacomb, Christensen, & Henderson, 1999; Lauber, Nordt, Braunschweig, & Rössler, 2006; Li, Li, Thornicroft, & Huang, 2014). Specifically, Australian studies have found that, when compared with the general public, health professionals were less optimistic about recovery from serious mental health conditions and were more likely to believe that an individual with a serious mental health condition would experience discrimination (Jorm et al., 1999) and stigmatisation (Reavley, Mackinnon, Morgan, & Jorm, 2014). Furthermore, although health professionals indicated less stigmatising attitudes toward people with a mental illness than the general public, Reavley et al. (2014) found that they shared a similar desire for social distance and demonstrated similar levels of self stigma, suggesting they would be less likely to accept a mental health condition in themselves than others.

A number of studies have also found that concerns regarding a lack of confidentiality are another significant barrier for mental health professionals seeking treatment for mental illness (Abbey et al., 2011; Gadit, 2009; Hansson, Jormfeldt, Svedberg, & Svensson, 2013; White et al., 2006). A survey of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom found that those who had experienced a mental illness reported a preference not disclose future illness to anyone, including colleagues and professional organisations, due to fear of negative ramifications and stigma. Furthermore, psychiatrists were found to value the importance of a discrete service over the quality of treatment it offered, and were inclined to diagnose and treat themselves, or turn to informal support rather than seeking out professional help (White et al., 2006). Similarly, Bearse et al. (2013) found that identifying an appropriate clinician was a main reason psychologists did not engage in treatment. Concern was also expressed about the age of prospective therapists (i.e., too young), dual relationships, incompetence, and disappointment with previous therapists.

In Australia, health professionals are mandated to report impaired practitioners/colleagues to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Specifically, the AHPRA mandatory reporting guidelines require that the agency be notified if a practitioner is experiencing impairment (physical or mental) that is likely to detrimentally effect their ability to practice (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, 2014; Bismark, Morris, & Clarke, 2014). However, the guidelines for mandatory notification state that ‘a practitioner must have placed the public at risk of substantial harm’ (p. 8) in order to trigger notification (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, 2014). While this increases professional accountability and spreads the responsibility of identifying and reporting impaired colleagues across all health practitioners (Herlihy, 1996; Kleespies et al., 2011), research has found that this further acts as a barrier to self‐disclosure of mental illness in doctors (Beran, 2014).

Despite the research available about mental health professionals help seeking behaviour on an international level (Abbey et al., 2011; Balon, 2007; Bearse et al., 2013; King et al., 1992; Norcross, Bike, Evans, & Schatz, 2008; Tyessen et al., 2004; White et al., 2006), there is limited information available about the help seeking intentions and behaviour of mental health professionals in Australia. The aim of this study was to (1) conduct a pilot investigation into attitudes toward seeking help, and barriers to help seeking reported by Australian mental health professionals; (2) investigate differences in barriers reported by experienced and inexperienced mental health care professionals (i.e., students).

METHOD

Participants

Snowball, purposive sampling was used to recruit 98 practicing mental health professionals (N = 67) and students (clinicians in training, N = 31) to complete an online survey assessing barriers to accessing care for mental ill health, help‐seeking intentions, and past behaviour, and concerns regarding disclosure of mental health problems. The sample consisted of 16 males (16.3%) and 82 females (83.7%), self‐identifying as having past or current experience working in a mental health or related field. Respondents were predominantly psychologists (69.2%), other professions represented included social workers, nurses, and psychiatrists. Respondents primarily reported working in community mental health or private practice. Those currently employed in mental health reported years of experience working in mental health ranging 1–40 years (M = 6.69, standard deviation (SD) = 7.88).

Measures

The questionnaire comprised measures to assess barriers to seeking help. Participants were asked to provide demographic information including age, gender, occupation, how long they had worked in mental health, and what area of mental health they worked in. Further questions specifically assessed help‐seeking behaviour, intentions, and past experience.

Barriers to help seeking

Barriers to help seeking were assessed using the Barriers to Access to Care Evaluation scale (BACE; Clement et al., 2012). The 30 item scale assesses the degree to which respondents report a variety of factors as barriers to seeking professional care for a mental health problem. Respondents reported the extent to which the issues presented had ever stopped, delayed, or discouraged them from getting, or continuing with, professional care for a mental health problem, on a 4 point Likert scale from 0 (Not At All) to 3 (A Lot). For this study, scores on individual items were examined through dichotomising the scale to reflect the percentage of respondents reporting they had experienced the barrier to any degree (i.e., 0 = not at all, 1 = a little–a lot); and the percentage experiencing the barrier as a major barrier (i.e., 0 = not at all–quite a bit, 1 = a lot). The BACE scale has been found to have good test–retest reliability (ranging 0.61–0.80), internal consistency, and content and construct validity (Clement et al., 2012).

Help seeking experiences and intentions

Single item questions relating to whether participants had ever experienced a mental illness, whether they were currently engaged in treatment, and whether they would seek help if distressed were developed for the purpose of the present study. Further questions included whether participants would refer to someone who had a mental illness and the role of the AHPRA mandatory reporting requirement in relation to help seeking and disclosure of distress/impairment to participant's workplaces. All items were responded to as 0 (No) or 1 (Yes).

Procedure

Participants completed the online survey between June and August 2015. Snowball, purposive sampling was used to recruit mental health professionals in Australia via an email sent to colleagues and associates of the researchers with an attachment of the survey and a request to send the link on to other appropriate participants. By following the link in the email, participants were directed to the online survey. Prior to completing the survey, participants received information describing the purpose and nature of the study. Participants were informed that involvement was voluntary, and that all responses were strictly anonymous and confidential. No incentive to participate was offered. Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the University of Canberra Committee for Ethics in Human Research (Protocol number 15‐35).

RESULTS

Help seeking experiences and intentions

This study indicated that nearly 40.8% (n = 40) of the participants had experienced a mental illness at some point in their life. Of those participants, approximately one third (32.5%, n = 13/40) were presently engaged in treatment and more than half of participants (59.4%, n = 57/96) reported having sought help for mental health issues in the past. The overwhelming majority of participants (88.8%, n = 87/98) reported that they would seek help if they were distressed or experiencing a mental illness.

When asked who they would seek help from, if distressed, 70.4% (n = 69) of respondents indicated a psychologist. This was followed by endorsement for seeking help from a general practitioner (59.2%, n = 58), family/friends (58.2%, n = 57), a counsellor (21.4%, n = 21), psychiatrist (16.3%, n = 16), an Internet‐based service (16.3%, n = 16), local (public) mental health service (4.1%, n = 4), and a telephone help line (e.g., Lifeline; 3.1%, n = 3). When asked about how unwell, they would need to be before they would consider seeking help, 81.7% (n = 80) of the sample reported that their level of distress would need to be moderate to severe.

Despite endorsement for seeking help in future, 58.2% (n = 57/98) of participants indicated that there had been a time in their life when they would have benefited from seeking help but decided not to. Of those that indicated they had decided not to seek help in the past, 43.9% (n = 25/57) reported the reason for this as ‘financial concerns’. Other reasons why participants had chosen not to seek help included ‘fear of colleagues/workplace finding out’ (29.8%, n = 17/57), ‘no suitable clinicians available’ (26.3%, n = 15/57), a belief that they could treat themselves (22.8%, n = 13/57), or ‘other’ (42.1%, n = 24/57). Other reasons listed included time constraints and availability of services. A total of 71.9% (n = 41/57) of these respondents were working in mental health at the time; 61.4% (n = 35/57) reported that they believed that their mental state would have impacted the quality of their work.

Barriers to seeking help

In investigating the perceived barriers to seeking help within the sample, participants were first asked about the impact of AHPRA's mandatory reporting of impaired colleagues requirement. Of the sample (n = 98), 64.3% (n = 63) of individuals indicated that the mandatory reporting requirement would prevent them from disclosing to their workplace if they were unwell; 57.1% (n = 56) indicated that the mandatory reporting requirement would also act as a barrier to seeking help if they were distressed.

Further investigation of the perceived barriers to accessing mental health care, as assessed by the BACE, indicated the individual barrier endorsed by the greatest number of respondent was ‘wanting to solve the problem on my own’. Almost 92% of respondents reported to have experienced this to some degree, indicating that it had stopped or delayed them seeking help to some degree. Moreover, 27.6% of respondents reported ‘wanting to solve the problem on my own’ as a major barrier. Other significant barriers included ‘thinking the problem would get better by itself’, ‘difficulty taking time off work’, ‘concern about what people at work might think, say or do’, ‘feeling embarrassed or ashamed’, ‘concern that I might be seen as weak for having a mental health problem’, ‘not being able to afford the financial costs involved’, and ‘concern that people I know might find out’. ‘Not wanting a mental health problem on my medical records’ was reported as a major barrier by 18.6% of respondents. See Table 1 for full list of barriers by percentage reporting ‘not at all’, ‘a little to a lot’, or simply ‘a lot’.

Table 1. Summary of endorsed barriers to accessing mental health care

	n	Not at all %	A little–a lot %	A lot %
Wanting to solve the problem on my own	98	8.2	91.8	27.6
Thinking the problem would get better by itself	98	20.4	79.6	11.2
Difficulty taking time off work	97	24.7	75.3	10.3
Concern about what people at work might think, say or do	97	29.9	70.1	14.4
Feeling embarrassed or ashamed	96	30.2	69.8	12.5
Concern that I might be seen as weak for having a mental health problem	97	33.0	67.0	10.3
Not being able to afford the financial costs involved	97	33.0	67.0	8.2
Concern that people I know might find out	97	34.0	66.0	10.3
Not wanting a mental health problem to be on my medical records	97	34.0	66.0	18.6
Preferring to get help from family or friends	97	40.2	59.8	6.2
Concern that people might not take me seriously if they found out I was having professional care	97	41.2	58.8	5.2
Concern that it might harm my chances when applying for jobs	97	43.3	56.7	11.3
Concerns about the treatments available (e.g., medication side effects)	97	49.5	50.5	4.1
Concern about what my friends might think, say or do	97	50.5	49.5	2.1
Thinking that professional care probably would not help	97	54.6	45.4	9.3
Thinking I did not have a problem	97	54.6	45.4	3.1
Being unsure where to go to get professional care	98	55.1	44.9	3.1
Dislike of talking about my feelings, emotions, or thoughts	97	57.7	42.3	3.1
Concern about what my family might think, say, do or feel	97	58.8	41.2	5.2
Concern that I might be seen as ‘crazy’	97	61.9	38.1	4.1
Preferring to get alternative forms of care (e.g., traditional/religious healing or alternative/complementary therapies)	97	63.9	36.1	5.2
Having had previous bad experiences with professional care for mental health	95	65.3	34.7	10.5
Concern that I might be seen as a bad parent	82	75.6	24.4	6.1
Fear of being put in hospital against my will	97	80.4	19.6	5.2
Being too unwell to ask for help	96	82.3	17.7	2.1
Having problems with childcare while I receive professional care	75	82.7	17.3	5.3
Problems with transport or travelling to appointments	98	83.7	16.3	2.0
Having no one who could help me get professional care	96	85.4	14.6	1.0
Professionals from my own ethnic or cultural group not being available	93	87.1	12.9	2.2
Concern that my children may be taken into care or that I may lose access or custody without my agreement	80	87.5	12.5	3.8

Note. n values differ due to missing data.

Experience and barriers to seeking help

Chi‐square analyses examining the proportion of participants indicating each as a barrier to some degree, by experience (student versus professional), indicated a greater proportion of those participants identified as students reported ‘Being unsure where to go to get professional care’, ‘Not being able to afford the financial costs involved’, and ‘Preferring to get help from family and friends’ as barriers. No other significant difference based on level of experience was identified. See Table 2 for a summary of significant effects.

Table 2. Barriers to seeking help by experience

Barrier	Student (%)	Professional (%)	χ^2 p
N	31	67
Being unsure where to go to get professional care	61.3%	37.3%	.026
Not being able to afford the financial costs involved	80.6%	60.6%	.050
Preferring to get help from family or friends	74.2%	53.0%	.047

Note. Percentage reflects barrier reported a little‐a lot, within level of experience.

DISCUSSION

The primary aim of this study was to gain an initial understanding of the attitudes of Australian mental health professionals towards seeking help for mental health problems and the barriers that may prevent them from accessing treatment. Results from this study found that approximately 40% of the sample had experienced a mental illness at some point in their life. This is consistent with the incidence of mental illness in the general population (Rickwood et al., 2012) and suggests that mental health professionals are no more or less likely to experience mental illness than any other member of society. While the majority of respondents (59.4%) had received treatment for mental health issues at some point, and approximately 89% indicated that they would seek help if they were distressed or experiencing a mental health problem; of concern was the indication that almost the same proportion of respondents (58.2%) reported that there had been a time when they would have benefited from seeking help but decided not to; and that approximately 11% reported that they would not seek help at all if they were experiencing distress.

Past research has suggested that there is a general reluctance among mental health professionals to seek help when distressed (Abbey et al., 2011), despite being aware of the implications of not engaging in treatment (Smith & Moss, 2009). While the positive intentions to seek help indicated within the present sample are in contrast to this, they may reflect social desirability in responding, especially in light of the other findings. The findings that a large proportion of participants reported that there had been a time when they would have benefited from seeking help but decided not to are of concern. However, this result is consistent with the research conducted by Bearse et al. (2013). While it may be argued that this reflection could coincide with a time prior to training as a health professional, in this study, it must be noted that the majority of respondents indicating this (71.9%) reported that they were working in mental health at the time and a significant portion believed their mental state would have impacted the quality of their work. The latter is particularly concerning and suggests barriers and fear associated with seeking help may be particularly strong for some individuals. Practicing while impaired can have detrimental impacts on patient care, such as resulting in failure to appropriately diagnose or treat individuals under their care; in addition to the detriment to the individuals health, wellbeing, and quality of life that would accompany untreated illness. Based on past research, these results may reflect a reluctance of mental health professionals to engage in a dual relationship (as patient and mental health professional); an issue particularly problematic in small towns and regional areas where mental health support is limited (Bearse et al., 2013). Further, while specific barriers identified will be discussed below, stigma and privacy concerns may contribute to this finding. Privacy concerns are a commonly identified barrier to seeking help for mental health professionals (Abbey et al., 2011; Gadit, 2009; Hansson et al., 2013; White et al., 2006), and although Australian mental health professionals have been found to have less stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness than the general public (Jorm et al., 1999; Reavley et al., 2014), research has found that mental health professionals are less likely to accept mental illness in themselves and are uncomfortable disclosing a mental illness to their peers (Gras et al., 2014; Reavley et al., 2014).

Barriers to seeking help for mental health professionals

Our results support that mental health professionals experience a number of barriers to accessing treatment. Consistent with previous findings (Baldisseri, 2007; Balon, 2007; Tyessen et al., 2004), participants reflected self‐sufficiency in their attitude towards dealing with mental health concerns. Wanting to solve the problem on their own was identified by participants as the most common reason for not seeking help. However, it should be recognised that this may be a consequence of experiencing other barriers to treatment.

Other barriers identified to seeking help included not having enough time or difficulty taking time off work, financial costs, and stigma‐related items such as concerns for what others might think, and feeling embarrassed or ashamed. Of interest was that a majority of participants reported that the AHPRA mandatory reporting requirements would act as a barrier to them disclosing to their workplace if they were experiencing distress and/or seeking help. This finding supports concerns expressed by Beran (2014) that the reporting requirement would result in an avoidance of treatment and prevent a sense of openness and honesty between mental health professionals and their employers, due to fear of the implications that self‐disclosure could have on professional registration. The implications of this are serious for the health care industry, creating a culture of secrecy and denial in the health care industry, while leading to a sense of hypocrisy due to the overt denouncing of stigma on one level, yet promoting a lack of acceptance of impairment in mental health professionals on another. The result being that mental health professionals become more vulnerable to working with untreated mental illnesses, leading to in a detrimental effect on the quality of their work and patient care (Tyessen et al., 2004). This is further reflected by our finding that a number of respondents reported a time when they recognised that their mental state would have impacted the quality of their work (in mental health) and that they would have benefited from seeking help but decided not to.

Compared to more experienced professionals, a greater proportion of those identified as students (clinicians in training) reported having been unsure where to get professional help, financial costs, and a preference for getting help from family and friends as barriers which may have stopped, delayed, or discouraged them from seeking help. It is likely these reflect barriers faced prior to any training in mental health. However, these findings warrant further investigation as new, or less experienced mental health professionals may be not as adept at dealing with some of the common, industry specific issues (e.g., burnout, vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue) faced by mental health professionals (Katsavdakis et al., 2004).

While overcoming stigma‐related barriers requires energy to be focused on changing individuals’ attitudes and experiences, logistical barriers can be tackled on a broader, systemic level. Financial barriers could be overcome by making treatment more accessible for people who work in mental health, for example, by further promoting the use of free, workplace‐based counselling services such as Employee Assistance Programs. Time constraints could be counteracted by relevant professional bodies further promoting any material that they offer online regarding self‐care, and providing information about options for seeking help. Additionally, further education around the specific conditions under which notification should be made and the consequences of being reported to AHPRA for impairment may reduce fear of the process and encourage self‐disclosure and help‐seeking behaviour. This may include information regarding the process following a notification, the impact of a notification on one's registration, the threshold for what constitutes impairment/conditions being placed on registration, and further emphasis being placed on non‐punitive responses to impairment.

Limitation and future directions

While this study has provided valuable information about the attitudes toward seeking help during times of psychological distress amongst Australian mental health professionals, it should be considered within the context of several limitations. Primarily, this study should be viewed as a pilot investigation given the relatively small sample size, the disproportionate number of psychologists involved as compared with other mental health professionals, and the potential bias as the result of the recruitment method used. Specifically, given that the sample was obtained via snowball sampling methods, it may not reflect the wider Australian mental health profession. Moreover, the self‐section of responding participants should also be acknowledged. Given the clear focus of the survey, it is possible that respondents over represented professionals with past experience of mental health conditions. Equally, given the high rates of burnout and the number of people that leave the profession as a result (Di Benedetto & Swadling, 2014; Morse et al., 2012), it is important to acknowledge that the recruitment strategy does not capture those mental health professionals currently not practicing. Further investigation into the help seeking behaviours, intentions, and barriers of mental health professionals is required across a more diverse population to include a greater proportion of social workers, nurses, and psychiatrists. This would allow for comparisons to be made across sub‐disciplines, and enable stronger conclusions to be drawn regarding the attitudes of mental health professionals toward seeking help.

In order to fully understand the help‐seeking behaviour of mental health professionals, it is recommended that further research into this topic be conducted. In addition to the recruitment of a larger and more representative sample, future studies would benefit from investigating the past help seeking behaviours of mental health professionals who had or have a mental illness, in order to fully understand the patterns of help seeking in this population group. Finally, it is suggested that future research seek to determine whether attitudes and behaviours towards help seeking change over time with the ongoing push for destigmatising mental illness in society.

CONCLUSIONS

The mental health of Australian mental health professionals, including their attitudes and behaviours towards seeking help when distressed is an important area of research which, to date, has received limited attention. This study has provided important preliminary information about the attitudes of mental health professionals and perceived barriers to seeking help when distressed. Mental health remains the focus of anti‐stigma campaigns and mental health literacy is promoted in the broader community. However, if campaigns to combat stigma and improve mental health literacy in the broader community are to have any credibility, it is essential that mental health professionals apply to themselves the same standards with regards to help seeking at times of psychological distress that they promote their clients and the community.