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Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana

OBJECTIVE: The heightened vulnerability of women to mental health issues during the period of pregnancy implies that seeking and receiving support for mental health services is a crucial factor in improving the emotional and mental well-being of pregnant women. The current study investigates the pre...

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Autor principal: Adjorlolo, Samuel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9983869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36867597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280496
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author Adjorlolo, Samuel
author_facet Adjorlolo, Samuel
author_sort Adjorlolo, Samuel
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: The heightened vulnerability of women to mental health issues during the period of pregnancy implies that seeking and receiving support for mental health services is a crucial factor in improving the emotional and mental well-being of pregnant women. The current study investigates the prevalence and correlates of seeking and receiving help for mental health services initiated by pregnant women and health professionals during pregnancy. DESIGN: Using a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaires, data were collected from 702 pregnant women in the first, second and third trimesters from four health facilities in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: It was observed that 18.9% of pregnant women self-initiated help-seeking for mental health services whereas 64.8% reported that health professionals asked about their mental well-being, of which 67.7% were offered mental health support by health professionals. Diagnosis of medical conditions in pregnancy (i.e., hypertension and diabetes), partner abuse, low social support, sleep difficulty and suicidal ideation significantly predicted the initiation of help-seeking for mental health services by pregnant women. Fear of vaginal delivery and COVID-19 concerns predicted the provision of mental health support to pregnant women by health professionals. CONCLUSION: The low prevalence of individual-initiated help-seeking implies that health professionals have a high responsibility of supporting pregnant women achieve their mental health needs.
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spelling pubmed-99838692023-03-04 Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana Adjorlolo, Samuel PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: The heightened vulnerability of women to mental health issues during the period of pregnancy implies that seeking and receiving support for mental health services is a crucial factor in improving the emotional and mental well-being of pregnant women. The current study investigates the prevalence and correlates of seeking and receiving help for mental health services initiated by pregnant women and health professionals during pregnancy. DESIGN: Using a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaires, data were collected from 702 pregnant women in the first, second and third trimesters from four health facilities in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: It was observed that 18.9% of pregnant women self-initiated help-seeking for mental health services whereas 64.8% reported that health professionals asked about their mental well-being, of which 67.7% were offered mental health support by health professionals. Diagnosis of medical conditions in pregnancy (i.e., hypertension and diabetes), partner abuse, low social support, sleep difficulty and suicidal ideation significantly predicted the initiation of help-seeking for mental health services by pregnant women. Fear of vaginal delivery and COVID-19 concerns predicted the provision of mental health support to pregnant women by health professionals. CONCLUSION: The low prevalence of individual-initiated help-seeking implies that health professionals have a high responsibility of supporting pregnant women achieve their mental health needs. Public Library of Science 2023-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9983869/ /pubmed/36867597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280496 Text en © 2023 Samuel Adjorlolo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Adjorlolo, Samuel
Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title_full Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title_fullStr Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title_short Seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in Ghana
title_sort seeking and receiving help for mental health services among pregnant women in ghana
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9983869/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36867597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280496
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