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.