Beliefs about CAMHS and help-seeking amongst adolescents (v1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Beliefs about Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and its role in help-seeking amongst adolescents
IRAS ID
232984
Contact name
Kylie Pascua Leones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study aims to understand adolescents’ beliefs about mental health services, including what these beliefs are and how they make sense of their beliefs. It is suggested that young people develop beliefs based on their past experiences which can also be influenced by social-cultural factors (e.g. Schaffer, 2004; Stallard, 2005). There have been a number of theories that suggest the influence of beliefs on certain behaviours (e.g. Azjen, 1991), therefore further exploration will aim to understand how beliefs about mental health services influence the decision to seek help.
The current literature acknowledges a gap between mental health need and service use amongst adolescents. The barriers towards help-seeking (e.g. Wilson & Deane, 2012; Guilliver, Griffiths & Christensen, 2010) the sources of help requested (e.g. Raviv, Raviv, Vago-Gefen & Fink, 2009), and the factors influencing help-seeking (e.g. Guo et al. 2015; Rickwood & Braithwaite, 1994) have been investigated.
The study involves semi-structured interviews with 8-12 young people, aged 16-18 years old, who are accessing NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Participants will be recruited via a clinical psychologist who is part of the clinical care team. Interviews will be analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) exploring how participants interpret their experiences about mental health services and help-seeking. On completion of the study, the results will be fed back to participants using their preferred option.
REC name
Wales REC 7
REC reference
18/WA/0082
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion