Moderate to severe psychological distress, disability, and non-receipt of past year visits to a mental health professional.

BACKGROUND: Studies of mental health care received by persons with disabilities who make up a significant group of the U.S. population are limited.

OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between disability and non-receipt of past year visits to a mental health professional among individuals with moderate to severe psychological distress.

METHODS: Study participants included a nationally representative sample of 5,566 people with moderate to severe psychological distress, extracted from 2011 to 2013 Integrated Health Interview using the 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Self-reported disability domains included vision, hearing, mobility, upper body self-care difficulty, learning difficulty, communication difficulty, and cognition difficulty.

RESULTS: Sixty-four percent of participants reported a disability. Logistic regression analyses showed that (adjusting for nativity, other mental health conditions, and chronic pain) people aged 18-64 years old with disabilities have significantly lower odds (OR = 0.52, p < 0.001) of unmet mental health care services than people without disabilities. However, foreign-born respondents have significantly higher odds (OR = 2.91; p < 0.001) of unmet mental health care services than U.S. born Americans. After controlling for gender, other mental health conditions and chronic pain, people aged 65 and above with disabilities have higher non-significant odds (OR = 1.34, p = 0.361) of unmet mental health care services than people without disabilities. Additionally, females have significantly higher odds (OR = 1.63, p = 0.039) than males.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate the importance of identifying demographic characteristics associated with an increased risk for psychological distress and increased unmet mental health care services among people with and without disabilities.