Perception of Mental Health in Relation to the Use of Mental Health Services among Youths.

Abstract

Abstract The prevalence of mental health among youths on a global scale ranges between 48% and 65% and contributes a significant 17% to the global Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) (World Health Organisation, 2017). Despite the negative impact of mental health challenges, early interventions produce better health and living outcomes. They also reduce the incidence of suicide and cause increased productivity (Schnyder, Panczak, Groth & Schultze-Lutter, 2017). 70% of people who seek professional help are able to live fairly lives and keep up with their daily responsibilities (Jorg, Visser, Ormel, Reijneveld, Hartman & Oldehinkel, 2015). The reason as to why youths rarely make use of mental health services has been a leading subject of research over the last decade (Woolf & Braveman, 2011). Several reasons have been identified with supporting arguments with the most frequently occurring reason being the perception of mental health (Bharadwaj, Pai & Suziedelyte, 2017). The social culture in a country like the United States has a different perception of mental health when compared to the social perception of a lower socio-economical country like India. This difference in perception reflects in the proportion of youths who access and make use of mental health services in both countries with less than 10% of Indian youths making use of the mental health services compare to the 41% of American youths. A study showed 65% of youths who admitted to having their actions and choices, including the willingness or not to use mental health services, dependent on the level of acceptance and the perception of such concepts by their religious communities (Ng, Nyunt, Chiam & Kua, 2011). This research essay answers the question of ‘How does the cultural and religious perceptions of mental health impact the use of mental health services among youths?’ The SCT explains that once youth observe how other individuals become socially neglect, isolated and excommunicated from their cultural and religious settings upon speaking out on their mental health and accessing mental health services, they are less willing to make use of mental health services to prevent similar outcome. The research hypothesis was that negative cultural and religious perceptions prevent youth from making use of mental health services. The research results were in favour of the hypothesis.