Community Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services

Abstract

Background: Mental health can be affected by a complex interplay of individual, family, community, and structural factors at any given moment. Community-oriented mental health services are typically favored over hospital-based options because they minimize structural obstacles to seeking assistance, decrease social isolation, and lower the risk of human rights violations that can occur in hospital environments.

Objectives: A descriptive correlational was used in this study which aims to determine students’ attitudes toward seeking mental health services, find out the association between students’ age and attitudes toward seeking mental health services, and investigate the differences in the attitudes toward seeking mental health services between the groups of gender and marital status.

Methodology: The study was conducted through an online survey among university students across Iraq. A non-probability convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students were recruited to participate in this study. Based on a margin of error of 5%, a confidence level of 95%, a population size of 82.000, and a response distribution of 50%, the recommended sample size will be 386. The final sample size is 400. The study instrument encompasses the students’ sociodemographic sheet (age, gender, marital status) and the Community Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences for windows, version (27).

Results: The study results displayed that the majority demonstrated a neutral attitude toward seeking mental health services (n = 329; 82.3%), followed by those who demonstrated a positive attitude (n = 58; 14.5%), and those who demonstrated a negative attitude (n = 13; 3.3%). There is a statistically significant correlation between students’ age and their attitudes toward seeking mental health services (r = .100).

Conclusion: The study concluded that most of the study participants have neutral attitudes toward seeking mental health services, and that the older the students, the positive the attitudes toward seeking mental health services.