‘Five hours to sort out your life’: qualitative study of the experiences of university students who access mental health support
Open accessAbstract
Background: Previous qualitative research suggests that university students feel that current service provision does not meet their needs. Exploring the reasons for this may help to promote service change, encourage the uptake of care, improve outcomes and increase satisfaction within university services. Aims: This study aimed to improve the understanding of how students experience the process of accessing and using mental health support, barriers and facilitators to treatment, and how students would adapt provision to improve experiences. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 full-time students who had used mental health services at university. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five higher-order themes were identified: personalisation and informed choice, simplifying the process, feeling abandoned ignored or invisible, stigma, and superiority of private and external services. Sixteen subthemes were identified within these themes. Conclusions: Findings indicate that access to mental health support should be simplified, with collaboration across university and external health and care services, to prevent students feeling lost or abandoned when seeking care. An inclusive approach to support access and provision of services for all presentations of mental health problems should be developed.
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Mental health services can be difficult to navigate and wait-lists are lengthy, preventing students from being proactive in seeking help.
“students also report that mental health services can be difficult to navigate and wait-lists for mental health services tend to be quite lengthy, preventing students from being proactive in seeking help”
From A Scoping Review of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Higher Education (2024) · cites this paper as Barnett et al., 2021
The Results (‘Simplifying the process’ and ‘Feeling abandoned, ignored or invisible’; page not available) describe confusing routes to support, long waiting lists, months of administrative steps, and students left waiting in crisis. The Discussion says experiences of abandonment could hinder further help-seeking, but it does not specifically say that long wait-lists prevented students from proactively seeking help. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Barnett, P., Arundell, L.-L., Matthews, H., Saunders, R., & Pilling, S.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Health Economics and Outcomes Research (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Barnett, Phoebe
- Venue
- BJPsych Open
- Publisher
- Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Published
- 2021-06-24
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e118-e118
- ISSN
- 2056-4724 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8269927
- OpenAlex
- W3174212601
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 2.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BJPsych Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Keywords
- university students, student mental health, access to mental health care, barriers to treatment, stigma, individualized care, informed choice, student experience, mental health service delivery
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