IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i9p529-d1738682.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“You Have the Choice of Whether You’re Going to Get Help or Attempt Suicide”: Exploring the Process and Impact of Mental Health Help-Seeking with Young People (16–25 Years)

Author

Listed:
  • Louise Lynch

    (School of Communication and Media, Institute for Nursing and Health Research, Ulster University, York Street, Belfast BT15 1AP, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK)

  • Anne Moorhead

    (School of Communication and Media, Institute for Nursing and Health Research, Ulster University, York Street, Belfast BT15 1AP, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK)

  • Maggie Long

    (School of Communication and Media, Centre for Communication and Media Research, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, Ulster University, York Street, Belfast BT15 1AP, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK)

  • Isobel Hawthorne-Steele

    (School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, York Street, Belfast BT15 1AP, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK)

Abstract

Background: Youth suicide is a global issue and a type of death that can be prevented through early access to evidence-based mental health interventions, which can contribute to improved quality of life as well as health, educational and employment outcomes. Young people are encouraged to seek help for mental health problems, yet help-seeking rates remain low. Objective: The aim of this research was to explore how young people with a mental health problem decide to search and ask for professional help, and the impact of help-seeking experiences. Methods: Young people aged 16–25 years with experiences of help-seeking to mental health services were recruited ( N = 18). Data analysis was informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory methods, and the findings were presented across four sub-categories: 1 . Deciding to Seek Help ; 2. Searching for the Right Help ; 3. Reflecting on Help-seeking Experiences ; and 4. Living with the Impacts of Help-seeking . Findings: Young people often sought help while highly distressed and required the skills and resources of a family member or friend to access the right type of help. Help-seeking was multi-episodic and had lasting positive and negative impacts. Young people’s help-seeking patterns were found to be similar to the ways in which they problem-solve in learning contexts, and the concept of a formal help-seeking skillset was presented. Conclusions: To minimise harm and improve provision and outcomes for young people’s health, education, and employment, research needs to urgently address the theoretical gap by developing distinct youth mental health help-seeking models or frameworks that acknowledge and incorporate how young people decide, search, and ask for help, and the important social relationships that support this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Louise Lynch & Anne Moorhead & Maggie Long & Isobel Hawthorne-Steele, 2025. "“You Have the Choice of Whether You’re Going to Get Help or Attempt Suicide”: Exploring the Process and Impact of Mental Health Help-Seeking with Young People (16–25 Years)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:529-:d:1738682
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/9/529/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/9/529/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ungar, Michael, 2011. "Community resilience for youth and families: Facilitative physical and social capital in contexts of adversity," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1742-1748, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. García-Poole, Chloe & Byrne, Sonia & Rodrigo, María José, 2019. "How do communities intervene with adolescents at psychosocial risk? A systematic review of positive development programs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 194-209.
    2. Ke Cui & Ziqiang Han & Dongming Wang, 2018. "Resilience of an Earthquake-Stricken Rural Community in Southwest China: Correlation with Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Jorge Moya & María Goenechea, 2022. "An Approach to the Unified Conceptualization, Definition, and Characterization of Social Resilience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Zhihan Dai & Guochun Wu, 2025. "Disaster risk reduction policies and perceived community resilience in rural ethnic minority communities in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Theron, Linda C. & Theron, Adam M.C., 2014. "Education services and resilience processes: Resilient Black South African students' experiences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 297-306.
    6. Hargreaves, Margaret B. & Verbitsky-Savitz, Natalya & Coffee-Borden, Brandon & Perreras, Lexie & White, Catherine Roller & Pecora, Peter J. & Morgan, Geoffrey B. & Barila, Theresa & Ervin, Andi & Case, 2017. "Advancing the measurement of collective community capacity to address adverse childhood experiences and resilience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 142-153.
    7. Jing Xu & Zhenjian Zeng & Yu Hong & Zhenhua Xi & Xiting Zhu & Zhencong Peng, 2022. "Grassroots Mirroring under COVID-19: Does Community Resilience Affect Residents’ Responses? The Case of Shenzhen, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    8. Shaikh Mohammad Kais & Md Saidul Islam, 2016. "Community Capitals as Community Resilience to Climate Change: Conceptual Connections," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Janine Natalya Clark & Philip Jefferies, 2023. "Measuring Resilience and the Importance of Resource Connectivities: Revising the Adult Resilience Measure (RRC-ARM)," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-22, May.
    10. Charles Gyan & Batholomew Chireh & Noelle Chuks-Eboka & Ata Senior Yeboah, 2023. "Reconsidering the Conceptualization of Resilience: The Experiences of Refugee and Immigrant Youth in Montreal," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1591-1615, August.
    11. Shaikh Mohammad Kais & Md Saidul Islam, 2020. "Resilience to Climate Change in Industrial Shrimping in Bangladesh: Assessing the Comparative Role of the Stakeholders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Elinor Parrott & Andrea Bernardino & Martha Lomeli-Rodriguez & Rochelle Burgess & Alfi Rahman & Yulia Direzkia & Helene Joffe, 2023. "Community Resilience after Disasters: Exploring Teacher, Caregiver and Student Conceptualisations in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-24, December.
    13. To, Siu-ming & Tam, Hau-lin & Ngai, Steven Sek-yum & Sung, Wai-leung, 2014. "Sense of meaningfulness, sources of meaning, and self-evaluation of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong: implications for youth development programs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 352-361.
    14. Alaazi, Dominic A. & Salami, Bukola & Gabriel Ojakovo, Oghenevwarho & Nsaliwa, Christina & Okeke-Ihejirika, Philomina & Salma, Jordana & Islam, Bonnieca, 2022. "Mobilizing communities and families for child mental health promotion in Canada: Views of African immigrants," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    15. Jaime Madrigano & Kathryn Lane & Nada Petrovic & Munerah Ahmed & Micheline Blum & Thomas Matte, 2018. "Awareness, Risk Perception, and Protective Behaviors for Extreme Heat and Climate Change in New York City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-11, July.
    16. Kenisha Russell Jonsson & Joan Busfield & Marita Södergren & Miia Karen & Nicholas Kofi Adjei, 2020. "Social Capital, Deprivation and Psychological Well-Being among Young Adolescents: A Multilevel Study from England and Wales," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    17. Gary Robinson & Eunro Lee & Bernard Leckning & Sven Silburn & Tricia Nagel & Richard Midford, 2022. "Validity and reliability of resiliency measures trialled for the evaluation of a preventative Resilience-promoting social-emotional curriculum for remote Aboriginal school students," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-21, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:529-:d:1738682. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.