Research shows that there is a high unmet need for mental health care among adolescents in Asia and Europe

A large international study conducted at the University of Turku in Finland found that most adolescents do not seek professional help, even if they have high levels of mental health problems. This unmet need was widespread in all eight Asian and European countries included in the study, but particularly in lower-income countries.

The studypublished in European Child and Adolescent PsychiatryResearch has shown that while many adolescents consider seeking help from informal sources for their mental health problems, few actually seek help from formal sources.

PhD student Yuko Mori from the Child Psychiatry Research Center at the University of Turku, Finland, and lead author of the study, says that adolescents who seek external help to deal with their psychological problems choose from two main types of sources: informal and formal sources of help .

“Adolescents can get help from informal sources such as friends, teachers and family members and/or formal sources such as school nurses, psychologists and counselors for professional help. Where they seek help depends, for example, on the availability of services, cultural background and stigma associated with mental illness,” says Mori.

Less than 1% of adolescents in middle-income countries seek professional help

The study included 13,184 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years who completed self-administered surveys between 2011 and 2017 in eight Asian and European countries: China, Finland, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Norway and Vietnam. The study was conducted as part of the Eurasian Child Mental Health Study (EACMHS), a school-based, international study of adolescent well-being and mental health.

In middle-income countries, less than 1% sought help from professional sources, while in high-income countries this percentage is slightly higher, between 2% and 7%. Girls generally seek help for mental health problems more often than boys.

Only 1%–2% of adolescents with high levels of emotional and behavioral problems in middle-income countries (India, Vietnam, China) sought formal help. In other words, 98%–99% of those suffering from high levels of distress do not seek formal help. In high-income countries the percentage was significantly higher, but still limited, 6%–7% in Greece, Israel and Japan and 21%–25% in Norway and Finland.

“Interestingly, significant differences between girls and boys in terms of unmet needs were only found in Norway and Finland, where girls sought formal help more often than boys,” Mori notes.

Global need for mental health awareness and literacy programs

The study also found that informal resources are widely used by adolescents and that informal resources are the most important resource in many countries, especially in low-income countries.

EACMHS leader Professor Andre Sourander, MD says the prevalence of informal resources, especially in lower income countries, highlights the global need for mental health awareness and literacy programs.

“Cross-cultural studies of adolescent mental health, such as the current study, are important because almost all mental health research comes from high-income Western countries. There is a huge knowledge gap because most research represents less than 10% of the adolescent population.

“Perhaps the most striking finding was how important informal sources of support, such as teachers, friends and parents, were. This highlights the importance of promoting culturally sensitive mental health and literacy programs globally,” says Professor Sourander.