Mental health care-seeking and barriers: a cross-sectional study of an urban Latinx community

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 3091 - 11
• Main Authors: Newberry, Jennifer A, Gimenez, Michelle A, Gunturkun, Fatma, Villa, Erica, Maldonado, Maritza, Gonzalez, Dilza, Garcia, Gabriel, Espinosa, Patricia Rodriguez, Hedlin, Haley, Kaysen, Debra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 08.11.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Analysis; Bilingualism; Censuses; Community; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Decision trees; Demographics; Demography; Female; Gender; Health aspects; Health care; Health care access; Health care disparities; Health services; Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data; Help seeking behavior; Help-seeking; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic or Latino - psychology; Hispanic or Latino - statistics & numerical data; Households; Humans; Latinx; Likert scale; Male; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - ethnology; Mental Disorders - therapy; Mental health; Mental health care; Mental Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - ethnology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Postal codes; Psychiatric services; Psychological aspects; Public health; Random walk; Stigma; Supply and demand; Surveys; Uninsured people; Urban areas; Urban Population - statistics & numerical data; Womens health; Young Adult; United States; United States > US; Latinx; Help-seeking; Mental health
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-20533-6

The Latinx community faces an increasing amount of mental health challenges and disparities in care. While the contributing factors are complex, there are likely potential barriers related to connecting with mental health support and accessing care that can be addressed. To investigate barriers in connecting to mental health care, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of mental health service use and barriers in an urban community with a primarily Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity using a modified random walk approach for door-to-door data collection with a two-cluster sampling frame. Survey included questions on socio-demographic, mental health status, desire and attempt to seek care, and the Barriers to Access to Care Evaluation. Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) identified impactful barriers and demographic characteristics. Our primary outcome was the number of respondents who saw a professional in the past 12 months and the key determinants that enabled their successful connection. Secondary outcomes were people with poor mental health who had wanted or tried to seek any source of mental health support. Of the 1004 respondents enrolled, 70.5% were foreign born; 63.4% were women. In the past 12 months, 23.8% of respondents wanted to connect with mental health care; 15.5% tried to connect, and only 11.7% successfully connected to mental health services. The two most cited barriers had the highest SHAP values: concerns about treatments available (65%) and financial costs (62.7%). Additional barriers with high SHAP values: being seen as weak and having no one to help them find care. Of demographic characteristics, age had the highest SHAP values. In a community with a high density of Latinx immigrants, just under half of respondents wanting mental health care successfully connected. Perceived informational, financial, and stigma-related barriers impacted the likelihood to connect with mental health care. These factors should be considered when designing programs and interventions to improve mental health care access and services in the Latinx community.