Help-seeking intention and associated factors towards mental illness among residents of Mertule Mariam town, East Gojam Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: a mixed-method study

BACKGROUND: About 76% and 85% of people in low and middle-income countries with severe mental illness did not get management because of fear of expected discrimination. Studying the intention to seek help for mental illness will, therefore, help to know their intended plan for help that would have a vital role to access patients with mental illness. Despite this, literature is limited in the area and community-based studies are scarce in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular concerning help-seeking intention towards mental illness and its associated factors. Therefore, we assessed the pattern of intention to seek help and associated factors for mental illness among residents of Mertule Mariam town that would fill the gap in evidence and serve as baseline information for public health intervention. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from May to June 2017 at Mertule Mariam town. General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHQ) was used to assess the intention of help sought. Focus group discussion had also been employed to obtain qualitative data. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain a total sample of 964 participants. Data were fed into Epi Info 7 and analyzed using SPSS version 21. The binary logistic regression method was used and an odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval was computed. Variables in multi-variable logistic regression were considered as an independent predictor of help-seeking intention to mental illness if their P value was less than 0.05. RESULT: About 81.5% of respondents had the intent to seek help from healthcare workers. But 44.6% of participants had the intention to seek from traditional healers. Variables that had an association with help-seeking intention were having an idea that mental illness needs treatment (AOR = 3.42, 95% CI 1.1–10.55), age group of 25–34 years (AOR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.02–2.09), mild social support (AOR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.25–2.72), and perceived severity of mental illness. CONCLUSION: Community help-seeking intent for mental health problems was still inadequate. So strengthening to deliver information about mental illness through media like radio and television to advance help-seeking intention of the community was mandatory.