The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Seeking informal and formal help for mental health problems in the community: a secondary analysis from a psychiatric morbidity survey in South London
Open accessAbstract
BackgroundOnly 30-35% of people with mental health problems seek help from professionals. Informal help, usually from friends, family and religious leaders, is often sought but is under-researched. This study aimed to contrast patterns of informal and formal help-seeking using data from a community psychiatric morbidity survey (n=1692) (South East London Community Health (SELCOH) Study).MethodsPatterns of help-seeking were analysed by clinical, sociodemographic and socioeconomic indicators. Factors associated with informal and formal help-seeking were investigated using logistic regression. Cross-tabulations examined informal help-seeking patterns from different sources.Results`Cases¿ (n = 386) were participants who had scores of ¿ 12 on the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), indicating a common mental disorder. Of these, 40.1% had sought formal help, (of whom three-quarters (29%) had also sought informal help), 33.6% had sought informal help only and only 26.3% had sought no help. When controlling for non-clinical variables, severity, depression, suicidal ideas, functioning and longstanding illnesses were associated with formal rather than informal help-seeking. Age and ethnic group influenced sources of informal help used. Younger people most frequently sought informal help only whereas older people tended to seek help from their family. There were ethnic group differences in whether help was sought from friends, family or religious leaders.ConclusionsThis study has shown how frequently informal help is used, whether in conjunction with formal help or not. Among the `cases¿, over 60% had sought informal help, whether on its own or together with formal help. Severity was associated with formal help-seeking. Patterns of informal help use have been found. The use and effectiveness of informal help merit urgent research.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Seeking help from a professional is considered optimal for the receipt of evidence-based treatments [23, 32].”
From Explaining adults’ mental health help-seeking through the lens of the theory of planned behavior: A scoping review (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Notably, only around one-third of individuals with diagnosable mental health conditions seek formal treatment (Brown et al., 2014;Kessler et al., 2005).”
From Artificial intelligence and unconditional love: the rise of generative AI as an alternative form of mental health support (2026) · cites this paper as Brown et al., 2014
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
WARE, J. E., KOSINSKI, M., & KELLER, S. D. (1996) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/00005650-199603000-00003 · Cited by 17,392
Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617 · Cited by 12,052
(1988) · NFER-Nelson eBooks · Cited by 5,560
(2001) · Cited by 5,455
Kleinman, A., EISENBERG, L., & GOOD, B. (1978) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-88-2-251 · Cited by 2,907
Mental health literacy: empowering the community to take action for better mental health
Jorm, A. F. (2012) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/a0025957 · Cited by 1,783 · cited 1×
“Where formal help is indicated, it has been suggested that informal help could act as a bridge to access help for mental disorders [36] or as an early intervention because formal resources are not always available [37].”
BackgroundYoung People’s Help-Seeking for Mental Health Problems
Rickwood, D., Deane, F. P., Wilson, C. J., & Ciarrochi, J. (2005) · Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health · doi:10.5172/jamh.4.3.218 · Cited by 1,619
The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Model of Care
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002) · Journal of Transcultural Nursing · doi:10.1177/10459602013003003 · Cited by 1,605
Barriers to mental health treatment: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
Mojtabai, R., Olfson, M., Sampson, N. A., Jin, R., Druss, B., Wang, P. S., Wells, K. B., Pincus, H. A., & Kessler, R. C. (2011) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291710002291 · Cited by 951
Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007: Results of a household survey
Mcmanus, S., Meltzer, H., Brugha, T., Bebbington, P., & Jenkins, R. (2009) · Unpublished · doi:10.13140/2.1.1563.5205 · Cited by 814
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Evans-Lacko S, Corker E, Williams P, Henderson C, Thornicroft G: Trends in mental illness related public stigma among the English population in 2003-2013: influence of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign.Lancet Psychiatry in press.,
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Evans-Lacko, S., & Knapp, M. (2016) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-016-1278-4 · Cited by 390
Self-citationMartinez, A. B., Co, M., Lau, J. Y. F., & Brown, J. S. L. (2020) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-020-01937-2 · Cited by 269
Self-citationTreatment rates for alcohol use disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Mekonen, T., Chan, G. C. K., Connor, J., Hall, W., Hides, L., & Leung, J. (2021) · Addiction · doi:10.1111/add.15357 · Cited by 207
An evaluation of a peer support intervention for student mental health
Byrom, N. (2018) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/09638237.2018.1437605 · Cited by 146
Estimating the global treatment rates for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Mekonen, T., Chan, G. C. K., Connor, J. P., Hides, L., & Leung, J. (2021) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2021.09.038 · Cited by 137
Metadata
- Authors
- Brown, J. S., Evans-Lacko, S., Aschan, L., Henderson, M. J., Hatch, S. L., & Hotopf, M.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Brown, June SL
- Venue
- BMC Psychiatry
- Published
- 2014-10-08
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 275-275
- ISSN
- 1471-244X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4195997
- OpenAlex
- W2021280370
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 9.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Maudsley Charity
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0507-10088)
- Guy's and St Thomas' Charity
- King's College London
- H. Lundbeck A/S
- Medical Research Council (MR/J013471/1)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- help-seeking, informal support, mental illness, common mental disorders, family support, religious leaders, ethnic differences, age differences, symptom severity, depression, suicidal ideation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
