Mental Health Service Utilization and Barriers
Summary
The utilisation of mental health services is shaped by a complex interplay of individual need, social determinants and health-system factors. Globally, fewer than half of those with diagnosable conditions receive formal care, creating a persistent treatment gap. Key barriers include socioeconomic disadvantage, geographical distance, cultural stigma and limited provider capacity. These interact with predisposing characteristics such as age and gender, perceived need for care and enabling factors like insurance coverage and service availability. Recent years have seen rapid shifts towards telepsychiatry and integrated primary care approaches, yet inequities remain entrenched. Understanding utilisation patterns and removing obstacles to timely, appropriate care is essential for reducing the global burden of mental disorders and enhancing population wellbeing.
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Mental Health Service Utilization and Barriers publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in mental health service utilization and barriers across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Socioeconomic status (SES): Composite indicator of an individual’s economic and social position, often based on education, income and occupation.
Telepsychiatry: Delivery of psychiatric assessment and care through remote communication technologies, including video and telephone.
Concentration index: Quantitative measure of how a health outcome or service use is distributed across socioeconomic groups, with values indicating the degree of inequality.
Enabling factors: Components of the Andersen model that represent the logistical and financial resources necessary to access health services, such as insurance coverage and proximity to providers.
References
- Equitable psychiatry, telehealth, and the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of national data. Frontiers in Public Health (2023).
- Socioeconomic factors and use of psychotherapy in common mental disorders predisposing to disability pension. BMC Health Services Research (2022).
- Socioeconomic position and mental health care use before and after first redeemed antidepressant and time until subsequent contact to psychologist or psychiatrists: a nationwide Danish follow-up study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (2020).
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