Predictors of mental health help-seeking among polish people living the United Kingdom

BACKGROUND: Migration has been shown to be associated with negative mental health outcomes. Moreover, migrants tend to underutilise mental health services. The current study aimed to assess the association between predictors, divided into three groups (predisposing, enabling and need), and two outcome variables: (1) past professional mental health help-seeking during the stay in the United Kingdom; (2) intentions of mental health help-seeking from a mental health professional within the next three months. METHODS: The study utilised a population-based cross-sectional survey with the final sample of 536 participants. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used to examine the association between predictors and the outcomes. RESULTS: We found strong evidence that older age, mental health stigma and living circumstances (predisposing factors), as well as knowledge of the National Health Service, social support, and education (enabling factors) were associated with past and future help-seeking for mental health problems. Finally, mental health status was associated with both past help-seeking and intentions. CONCLUSION: Due to large numbers of migrants in the UK it is vital to ensure that these populations receive adequate mental health support. Findings of the present study may inform development of policies and interventions better tailored to specific migrant populations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3504-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.