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The role of the peer support worker in increasing rural mental health help‐seeking
Author(s) -
Cheesmond Natalie,
Davies Kate,
Inder Kerry J.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/ajr.12603
Subject(s) - mental health , help seeking , peer support , mental distress , mental illness , distress , social support , rural area , medicine , psychology , rural health , nursing , psychiatry , clinical psychology , social psychology , pathology
Objective Mental health peer support workers draw on lived experience to provide benefit to people experiencing mental distress. People living in rural areas are less likely than their urban counterparts to seek professional help for psychological distress. The aim of this study was to explore the perceived value of rural peer support workers as facilitators to rural mental health help‐seeking. Design Data were gathered through a cross‐sectional survey distributed by a social media boosted post. Setting A total of 349 “small” rural towns in New South Wales as defined by the Modified Monash Model classification system as MMM5. Participants A total of 765 adult, rural residents completed the survey. Main outcome measure(s) Participants were asked to select, from a list of potential facilitators, those which they felt would make mental health help‐seeking easier or harder. Results Study participants felt that a help provider with lived experience of mental illness or distress would make mental health help‐seeking easier. Similarly, rural life experience in a help provider was thought to facilitate help‐seeking. Participants also believed that flexible and informal meeting settings would make it easier to seek help for mental distress. Conclusions Engaging rural mental health peer support workers in a flexible/informal setting, as a complement to conventional health service provision, may increase rural help‐seeking for mental distress. Increased mental health help‐seeking is likely to have a positive impact on instances of serious mental illness.