Help-seeking behaviour among Finnish adolescent males.

BACKGROUND

Adolescent males have a low rate of seeking help for mental health problems. The onset for many psychiatric disorders occur during the adolescence. Previous studies have identified previous help seeking, parental opinion, parental divorce and suicidal thoughts as factors associated with contacting mental health services. Yet studies on the rate of use of mental health services remain few, as do studies concerning factors associated with use of mental health services.

AIMS: To study prevalence and risk factors of use of mental health services among Finnish adolescent males.

METHODS

Factors associated with use of mental health services during the preceding 12 months were studied in a general population sample of 4309 men attending military call-up in 2009. The mean age was 18.3 ± 0.45 years.

RESULTS

Within the previous 12 months, 3.2% of men had used mental health services and an additional 2.3% had considered contacting mental health services. Factors associated with service use were living alone, having a poor paternal relationship, having no contact with father, death of father, high internalizing symptoms, suicidal thoughts, regular smoking and use of illicit drugs. Frequent drunkenness was associated with mental health service use, whereas occasional use of alcohol was inversely associated with use of mental health services.

CONCLUSIONS

The rate of mental health service use among males in late adolescence is very low. The inability of young people to contact service providers should be addressed more efficiently.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: A majority of the troubled men did not contact professionals for help, although approximately a quarter of the men had a self-perceived mental health problem. A major challenge is to find ways for mental health services to be made more accessible to adolescent males.