Background: Youth suicide is a global issue and a type of death that can be prevented through early access to evidence-based mental health interventions, which can contribute to improved quality of life as well as health, educational and employment outcomes. Young people are encouraged to seek help for mental health problems, yet help-seeking rates remain low. Objective: The aim of this research was to explore how young people with a mental health problem decide to search and ask for professional help, and the impact of help-seeking experiences. Methods: Young people aged 16–25 years with experiences of help-seeking to mental health services were recruited (N = 18). Data analysis was informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory methods, and the findings were presented across four sub-categories: 1. Deciding to Seek Help; 2. Searching for the Right Help; 3. Reflecting on Help-seeking Experiences; and 4. Living with the Impacts of Help-seeking. Findings: Young people sought help often while highly distressed and required the skills and resources of a family member or friend to access the right type of help. Help-seeking was multi-episodic and had lasting positive and negative impacts. Young people’s help-seeking patterns were found to be similar to the ways in which they problem-solve in learning contexts, and the concept of a formal help-seeking skillset was presented.
Lynch et al. (Sun,) studied this question.