Stigma and structural factors shaping mental healthcare services for children and adolescents in India: Provider perspectives.

This study centres the voices of providers currently working with the child and adolescent population to analyse social and structural factors that facilitate or impede access and service utilisation among children and adolescents. We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 psychological health care providers across 4 metropolitan cities in India. Thematic analysis was guided by an immersion-crystallization study design. Following this modified grounded theory approach, structural stigma emerged as a salient factor. Participant narratives revealed interconnecting forms of stigma encountered by adolescents. There was a preference for therapy over pharmacological interventions. Providers indicate the need for institutional and policy support for schools to promote mental health and well-being among children. Training lay counsellors, and initiating tele-mental health services in a large-scale manner could be effective ways to distribute caseloads and reach vulnerable populations without access to high-quality mental healthcare in their geographic vicinity.