Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems?
Background: UK armed forces personnel are at risk of occupational psychological injury; they are often reluctant to seek help for such problems. Objective: We aimed to examine and describe sources of support, prevalence and associates of help-seeking among UK serving and ex-serving personnel. Method...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2019-12-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1556552 |
| _version_ | 1797954590082072576 |
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| author | Sharon A. M. Stevelink Norman Jones Margaret Jones Daniel Dyball Charandeep K. Khera David Pernet Shirlee MacCrimmon Dominic Murphy Lisa Hull Neil Greenberg Deirdre MacManus Laura Goodwin Marie-Louise Sharp Simon Wessely Roberto J. Rona Nicola T. Fear |
| author_facet | Sharon A. M. Stevelink Norman Jones Margaret Jones Daniel Dyball Charandeep K. Khera David Pernet Shirlee MacCrimmon Dominic Murphy Lisa Hull Neil Greenberg Deirdre MacManus Laura Goodwin Marie-Louise Sharp Simon Wessely Roberto J. Rona Nicola T. Fear |
| author_sort | Sharon A. M. Stevelink |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: UK armed forces personnel are at risk of occupational psychological injury; they are often reluctant to seek help for such problems. Objective: We aimed to examine and describe sources of support, prevalence and associates of help-seeking among UK serving and ex-serving personnel. Method: A total of 1450 participants who self-reported a stress, emotional or mental health problem in the past 3 years were sampled from a health and wellbeing study and subsequently completed a telephone interview comprising measures of mental disorder symptoms, alcohol misuse and help-seeking behaviour. Results: Seven per cent of participants had not sought any help, 55% had accessed medical sources of support (general practitioner or mental health specialist), 46% had received formal non-medical (welfare) support and 86% had used informal support. Gender, age, perceived health, functional impairment, social support, deployment, alcohol and comorbidity impacted upon the choice of help source. Conclusions: This study found that the majority of those with perceived mental health problems sought some form of help, with over half using formal medical sources of support. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T23:19:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5dc6d387bdb44bfe924de61ec6303622 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2000-8066 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T23:19:47Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
| spelling | doaj.art-5dc6d387bdb44bfe924de61ec63036222023-01-12T15:31:30ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEuropean Journal of Psychotraumatology2000-80662019-12-0110110.1080/20008198.2018.15565521556552Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems?Sharon A. M. Stevelink0Norman Jones1Margaret Jones2Daniel Dyball3Charandeep K. Khera4David Pernet5Shirlee MacCrimmon6Dominic Murphy7Lisa Hull8Neil Greenberg9Deirdre MacManus10Laura Goodwin11Marie-Louise Sharp12Simon Wessely13Roberto J. Rona14Nicola T. Fear15King’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonUniversity of LiverpoolKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonKing’s College LondonBackground: UK armed forces personnel are at risk of occupational psychological injury; they are often reluctant to seek help for such problems. Objective: We aimed to examine and describe sources of support, prevalence and associates of help-seeking among UK serving and ex-serving personnel. Method: A total of 1450 participants who self-reported a stress, emotional or mental health problem in the past 3 years were sampled from a health and wellbeing study and subsequently completed a telephone interview comprising measures of mental disorder symptoms, alcohol misuse and help-seeking behaviour. Results: Seven per cent of participants had not sought any help, 55% had accessed medical sources of support (general practitioner or mental health specialist), 46% had received formal non-medical (welfare) support and 86% had used informal support. Gender, age, perceived health, functional impairment, social support, deployment, alcohol and comorbidity impacted upon the choice of help source. Conclusions: This study found that the majority of those with perceived mental health problems sought some form of help, with over half using formal medical sources of support.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1556552alcohol misusedepressionmilitary personnelveteranhelp-seekingpost-traumatic stress disorderquantitative methods |
| spellingShingle | Sharon A. M. Stevelink Norman Jones Margaret Jones Daniel Dyball Charandeep K. Khera David Pernet Shirlee MacCrimmon Dominic Murphy Lisa Hull Neil Greenberg Deirdre MacManus Laura Goodwin Marie-Louise Sharp Simon Wessely Roberto J. Rona Nicola T. Fear Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? European Journal of Psychotraumatology alcohol misuse depression military personnel veteran help-seeking post-traumatic stress disorder quantitative methods |
| title | Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| title_full | Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| title_fullStr | Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| title_short | Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| title_sort | do serving and ex serving personnel of the uk armed forces seek help for perceived stress emotional or mental health problems |
| topic | alcohol misuse depression military personnel veteran help-seeking post-traumatic stress disorder quantitative methods |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1556552 |
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