Connecting Mental Health Helping Capital in Rural Communities to Young People with Emergent and Early Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Understanding the mental health help-seeking experiences of young rural people in rural areas is important because most mental health problems emerge during adolescence. In addition, early recognition of emerging mental health problems in adolescents is linked to recovery as it is known to mitigate the long-term consequences of mental health decline. This research study aimed to better understand young people with emergent mental health problems who live in rural areas and to develop an improved theoretical perspective of rural mental health care that draws from the unique mental health helping capital that already exists within rural communities. Relevant literature was reviewed and a mixed methods case study research design selected to answer the research question: What helps young rural people with emergent mental health problems? A rural socio-ecological health theoretical framework was selected to explore the research topic. <br/> A cross sectional survey was conducted and data was analysed with descriptive, comparative and content analysis techniques. A pilot study with nine respondents was compared to the actual survey results of 81 respondents to determine the reliability of the survey tool. A strong similarity in responses between the two sets of responses was detected using Pearson’s correlations. The survey sample was inclusive of a broad range of rural participants from relevant backgrounds and across a full range of adult age groups. The results showed that rural people are willing to seek mental health help when it is required, and that the best people to provide mental health advice to young people are health professionals. People prefer to do nothing and hope that a mental health problem will resolve spontaneously prior to actually seeking mental health professional care. Young people prefer to seek help from their parents and friends if their mental health problems do not resolve spontaneously. In addition, the survey results described the rural nursing characteristics that are seen as helpful mental health care contributions towards the mental health care of people in rural communities. <br/> In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 participants. Transcribed data were analysed using thematic techniques and four themes emerged. The first theme described the characteristics of the emergence of mental health problems experienced by young rural people. The second theme described the characteristics of helping and how other people help young rural people with mental health problems. The third theme outlined the lack of meaningful connection with mental health services that young people and their families experience. Lastly, the fourth theme described the characteristics of health, welfare and social service providers. <br/> The integrated findings of this study identify the importance of: • Providing positive first mental health encounters for young rural people in their rural communities enables successful initial and ongoing mental health helping. • Rural nurses are mental health capital in rural communities. • Barriers to mental health help-seeking for young rural people persist. <br/> Implications arising from the findings for clinical practice and interdisciplinary collaboration support the need for an innovative deployment of current health resources to places of greater convenience for young rural people. The new theoretical perspective arising from this research supports a co-location of nursing assets in rural communities to promote the early engagement of young rural people into appropriate mental health care when required. Rural nurses are ideal mental health human resource assets to deploy in co-located rural settings because nurses are able to contribute expertise by paying adequate attention, carefully listening, providing authentic care which is mindfully present and understanding the local context for young rural people. The outcomes of this study provide new insights about the emergent mental health problems of young rural people, and make recommendations to improve rural mental health services for this population.