Undergraduate students accessing mental health services : exploring the barriers surmounted using a qualitative approach

Abstract

There is a high prevalence of mental health disorders among youth, however there is not a corresponding high level of help seeking behavior. Currently, there is little research on the barriers that post-secondary students have to overcome to access mental health services in Canada. This master’s thesis conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews (N=10) to gain an understanding of the barriers that undergraduate students attending an Atlantic Canadian university surmounted to access professional mental health services. The three overarching themes include; a) structural barriers to mental health services, b) barriers related to the perceptions of mental health problems, and c) barriers related to the perceptions of mental health services. Recommendations are to promote positive mental health at a community level by implementing policy and interventions such as peer support programs, gatekeeper programs, and mental health literacy workshops which have proven to increase help seeking and can be self-sustaining within the universities.