Older adults’ narratives of seeking mental health treatment: making sense of mental health challenges and “muddling through” to care
Abstract
Older adults who experience challenges related to mental health are unlikely to seek professional help. The voices of older adults who have navigated through mental health issues and systems of care to arrive at psychological treatment are less well understood. We conducted individual interviews with 15 adults aged 61 to 86 who sought psychological treatment. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using narrative methods. We identified several main storylines that describe the meaning-making and treatment-seeking journeys of older adults: resistance to being labeled with mental health problems (telling stories of resistance, defining mental health issues in mysterious and uncontrollable terms, and experiencing internal role conflict); muddling through the help-seeking process (manifestations of chaos and system-level barriers); and emotional reactions to psychological treatment (hope, fear, and mistrust). Findings add to the literature base in the area of narrative gerontology, and highlight the complex experiences that older adults face when seeking psychological treatment.
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Older adults are less likely to seek professional psychological help compared to younger age groups.
“although older adults experience high rates of mental health problems, loneliness, and isolation, they are less likely to seek professional psychological help compared to younger age groups (21, 22)”
From Telephone-based group mental health support for older adults in central Canada: pilot acceptability and effectiveness findings of The CONNECT Program (2025) · cites this paper as [22]
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Reynolds, K. A. A., Kudar, K., Joshi, J., Christianson, I., Davidson, D., Gopinath, G., Koven, L., Mackenzie, C., Miller, S., & Newall, N. (2025) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1541583 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Reynolds, K., Medved, M., Mackenzie, C. S., Funk, L. M., & Koven, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- American University of Paris (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Reynolds, Kristin
- Venue
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-05-26
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1517-1528
- ISSN
- 1049-7323 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7557
- OpenAlex
- W3030319415
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 4.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Qualitative Health Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Doctoral Research Award (K. Reynolds))
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- older adults, mental health treatment seeking, help-seeking, narrative gerontology, meaning-making, role conflict, help-seeking barriers, psychological intervention, mental health in aging
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Humans, Mental Health, Mental Health Services, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Narration, Qualitative Research
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