Stigma and Barriers to Care, Online Mental Health Tools, and Suicidality in California’s Veterans

Veterans have a higher national suicide rate than non-veterans (31.6 versus 18.0 per 100,000). Psychotherapy and other treatments are effective at reducing suicidality, yet stigma and barriers to care reduce willingness to seek help. For veterans who do seek help, they are often undertreated leaving them still in need of help. Online mental health tools (OMHTs) provide another option for obtaining help; however, there is limited research regarding the relationship between stigma and barriers to care, OMHT use, and suicidality. We hypothesized that stigma and barriers are related to higher likelihood of OMHT use and OMHT use is related to lower likelihood of suicidality.