Assessment of Professional Mental Health Help Seeking Attitude and Behavior And Associated Factors among Health Professionals at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital from July to August 2023; Cross Sectional Study
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Date
2024-04-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Introduction: Health professionals are trained to care for others and to put their patients’ needs above their own. In addition to the work-related stress, they are faced with non-occupational issues related to work life balance and financial issues. Health professionals give less attention to their own health and they often find it hard to seek help when their suffering is a result of mental distress. Although the mental health help seeking attitude and behavior in the community has been studied, there is no study to assess professional mental health help seeking attitude and behavior among health professionals done in Ethiopia. Objective: To describe the professional mental health help seeking attitude and behavior and associated factors among health professional working at TASH, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional facility-based study was conducted among a sample of 422 health professionals working at TASH. The health professions included in the study were selected by quota sampling. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaire using standardized measurements. The scales that were used are: Measuring the Self Stigma Associated with Seeking Psychological Help, Oslo Social Support Scale -3, Mental Help Seeking Attitude Scale (MHSAS). Sociodemographic variables, and confidential, convenient and accessible services were also assessed. The collected data was then be analyzed using SPSS version 25.
Result: A total of 422 participants were selected through quota sampling technique from all professions proportionally. About 50.7% of them were females and 49.3% were males. The largest age group (46.4%) was 25-29 years of age. Poor social support was recorded in 64.9% of the participants and 68.5% of the participants had answered with neutrality to questions regarding self-stigma associated with professional help seeking for mental health issues. The majority 96.7% had favorable attitude towards seeking psychological help. The majority of the participants answered ‘No’ to having confidential place, convenient place and convenient time to seek professional help 64.9%, 59.2% and 62.1% respectively and about 53.3% said they have easily accessible place to seek professional help. Of the total participants 33.6% had mental health issues and only 4.93% of them had actually sought help from mental health professional. There were two factors that are shown to have association with professional mental help seeking attitude. These are being in the age group 22 – 29 (AOR =0.26; 95% CI = 0.075 -0.896) and having moderate and strong social support is [AOR = 0.272; 95% CI = 0.080 - 0.924) were shown to have significant association with professional mental help seeking attitude.
Conclusion: The professional mental health help seeking attitude of health professionals is high compared to the general population. But the actual help seeking from a professional is low in comparison to studies done in other settings. We recommend to do an in depth interview to identify the reasons for the low rate of help seeking behavior and also improve the mental health service provision and to provide social support for health professionals.
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Mental Health Help Seeking Attitude