Barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking among African American youth and their families: A systematic review study

By A. Planey, S. Smith, S. Moore, T. Walker. Children and youth services review, 2019

225 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It is well documented that African American/Black youth underutilize mental health services. Thus, the aim of this narrative systematic review study was to examine the barriers to, and facilitators of, mental health help-seeking and service utilization for Black youth. The research team conducted a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies published from January 2000 to May 2017. Articles were included if they reported (i) barriers and/or facilitators of mental health help-seeking or outpatient mental health service use for Black youth and (ii) non-aggregated findings on African American or Black youth aged 18 and under. Fifteen articles (six quantitative, eight qualitative, and one mixed-method) met the inclusion criteria. Seven themes related to barriers were identified: child-related factors; clinician and therapeutic factors; stigma; religion and spirituality; treatment affordability, availability, and accessibility; the school system; and social network. Seven themes were also identified for facilitators: child mental health concerns; caregivers' experiences; supportive social network; positive therapeutic factors; religion and spirituality; referrals and mandates by parents and gatekeepers; and geographic region. Taken together, the identified barriers to and facilitators of mental health help-seeking among Black youth were multi-scalar (individual-, interpersonal-, and structural-level) and socially-embedded, reflecting help-seeking and service use for Black youth as a complex, contextual, and relational process. Findings support the need for reducing barriers of mental health care access and service use among a population whose need often outstrips actual use of services.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/393140588e247c90bf42eb0f16a7b4284fb4b527