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Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of perceptions of mental illnesses (especially psychosis), help-seeking, barriers to help-seeking, and opportunities to facilitate help-seeking in the African Nova Scotian Community. METHODS: A qualitative interpretive narra...

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Autores principales: Waldron, Ingrid, Senger, Brannon, Cookey, Jacob, Crown, Margie, Tibbo, Phil
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9974652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36113102
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437221125305
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author Waldron, Ingrid
Senger, Brannon
Cookey, Jacob
Crown, Margie
Tibbo, Phil
author_facet Waldron, Ingrid
Senger, Brannon
Cookey, Jacob
Crown, Margie
Tibbo, Phil
author_sort Waldron, Ingrid
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of perceptions of mental illnesses (especially psychosis), help-seeking, barriers to help-seeking, and opportunities to facilitate help-seeking in the African Nova Scotian Community. METHODS: A qualitative interpretive narrative approach, using the focus group method, was employed to engage African Nova Scotians in discussions on their perceptions and beliefs about mental illnesses and help-seeking in their communities. Youth in Early Intervention services, their caregivers, youth in the community, their caregivers, community leaders, and health service providers, were recruited from four locations in the Halifax Regional Municipality. A total of 75 individuals (37 female, 38 male) participated in the study. Narrative emplotment was used to analyse data from focus groups. RESULTS: Findings from focus groups were categorized based on four areas of discussion: (a) perceptions about psychosis and other mental illnesses among youth, caregivers, service providers and community leaders (b) beliefs about help-seeking among youth, caregivers, services providers and community leaders; (c) barriers and facilitators to seeking help for mental illnesses; and (d) the content and format of educational resources to educate and support youth, families and communities. CONCLUSIONS: Stigma surrounding mental illnesses in the community, lack of knowledge of illness and available services, concerns regarding negative involvement with police, or dismissal of difficulties by health care providers represent significant barriers to help-seeking in this community. Additionally, barriers include a lack of trust in health care services and a dearth of African Nova Scotian service providers. Bolstering capacity of community organizations to support and educate individuals around illness as well as fostering collaboration between health services and community organizations could reduce barriers to care. Future research should focus on examining ways to engage African Nova Scotians in collaboration with existing community organizations.
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spelling pubmed-99746522023-03-02 Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems Waldron, Ingrid Senger, Brannon Cookey, Jacob Crown, Margie Tibbo, Phil Can J Psychiatry Original Research OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of perceptions of mental illnesses (especially psychosis), help-seeking, barriers to help-seeking, and opportunities to facilitate help-seeking in the African Nova Scotian Community. METHODS: A qualitative interpretive narrative approach, using the focus group method, was employed to engage African Nova Scotians in discussions on their perceptions and beliefs about mental illnesses and help-seeking in their communities. Youth in Early Intervention services, their caregivers, youth in the community, their caregivers, community leaders, and health service providers, were recruited from four locations in the Halifax Regional Municipality. A total of 75 individuals (37 female, 38 male) participated in the study. Narrative emplotment was used to analyse data from focus groups. RESULTS: Findings from focus groups were categorized based on four areas of discussion: (a) perceptions about psychosis and other mental illnesses among youth, caregivers, service providers and community leaders (b) beliefs about help-seeking among youth, caregivers, services providers and community leaders; (c) barriers and facilitators to seeking help for mental illnesses; and (d) the content and format of educational resources to educate and support youth, families and communities. CONCLUSIONS: Stigma surrounding mental illnesses in the community, lack of knowledge of illness and available services, concerns regarding negative involvement with police, or dismissal of difficulties by health care providers represent significant barriers to help-seeking in this community. Additionally, barriers include a lack of trust in health care services and a dearth of African Nova Scotian service providers. Bolstering capacity of community organizations to support and educate individuals around illness as well as fostering collaboration between health services and community organizations could reduce barriers to care. Future research should focus on examining ways to engage African Nova Scotians in collaboration with existing community organizations. SAGE Publications 2022-09-13 2023-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9974652/ /pubmed/36113102 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437221125305 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Waldron, Ingrid
Senger, Brannon
Cookey, Jacob
Crown, Margie
Tibbo, Phil
Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title_full Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title_fullStr Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title_full_unstemmed Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title_short Addressing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Among African Nova Scotian Youth Experiencing Psychosis and Other Mental Health Problems
title_sort addressing stigma and promoting help-seeking among african nova scotian youth experiencing psychosis and other mental health problems
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9974652/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36113102
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07067437221125305
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