Engaging male students with mental health support: a qualitative focus group study.
BMC Public Health
; 20(1): 1159, 2020 Jul 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32709225
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Males are less likely to seek help for mental health difficulties compared to females. Despite considerable interest, a paucity of evidence-based solutions exists to address this. Concerns about students' mental health has led to the United Kingdom's Department of Education to make this a priority. Studies have shown that male students hold more negative attitudes towards the use of psychological services compared to female students and are less likely to seek help. A major concern is that male students make up 69% of university suicides, which is often associated with lower rates of help-seeking. This focus group study therefore sought to identify potential approaches that would be relevant to improving mental health help-seeking in male students.METHODS:
Three focus groups comprising of 24 male students at a London University were conducted. Participants were asked questions exploring the barriers to seeking help, what would encourage help-seeking, how an appropriate intervention should be designed, and how to publicise this intervention to male students. Thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate participants responses.RESULTS:
Five distinct themes were identified. These were 1) protecting male vulnerability, 2) providing a masculine narrative of help-seeking, 3) differences over intervention format, 4) difficulty knowing when and how to seek help, and 5) strategies to sensitively engage male students.CONCLUSIONS:
These themes represent important considerations that can be used, together with the existing literature about male help-seeking, to develop more male friendly interventions that are suitable for male students. This could help improve help-seeking attitudes and the uptake of mental health interventions for male students experiencing emotional distress.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Student Health Services
/
Students
/
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
/
Health Services Accessibility
/
Mental Health Services
Type of study:
Qualitative_research
Aspects:
Determinantes_sociais_saude
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
BMC Public Health
Journal subject:
SAUDE PUBLICA
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: