A

Abstract

Compared to women, men are less likely to seek help for mental health difficulties. Despite considerable interest, a paucity in evidence-based solutions remains to solve this problem. The current review sought to synthesise the specific techniques within male-specific interventions that may contribute to an improvement in psychological help-seeking (attitudes, intentions or behaviours). A systematic review identified 6,598 potential articles from three databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsychInfo). Nine studies were eligible. A meta-analysis was problematic due to disparate interventions, outcomes and populations. The decision to use an innovative approach that adopted the Behavioural Change Techniques (BCTs) taxonomy to synthesise each intervention’s key features likely to be responsible for improving help-seeking was made. Of the nine studies, four were engagement strategies (i.e. brochures/documentaries), two RCTs, two pilot RCTs and one retrospective review. Regarding quality assessment, three were scored as ‘strong’, five as ‘moderate’ and one as ‘weak’. Key processes that improved help-seeking attitudes, intentions or behaviours for men included: using role-models to convey information, psycho-educational material to improve mental health knowledge, assistance with recognising and managing symptoms, active problem-solving tasks, motivating behaviour change, sign posting services and finally, content that built on positive male traits (e.g. responsibility and strength). This is the first review to use this novel approach of using BCTs to summarise and identify specific techniques that may contribute to an improvement in male help-seeking interventions, whether engagement with treatment or the intervention itself. Overall, this review summarises previous male help-seeking interventions, informing future research/clinical developments. Published interventions measuring help-seeking behaviours were identified from the electronic databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO. A comprehensive review was conducted on the 1 st of March 2019 without any restrictions for publication year, language or method. The search strategy was first formulated for Ovid (MEDLINE) before being adapted for other databases. Subject headings of ‘help-seeking’ OR ‘barrier’ related terms AND ‘mental health’ related terms AND ‘intervention’ related terms AND ‘male sex’ related terms were used (see supplementary appendix 1). Furthermore, publications identified from manual reference checks were also included to ensure a comprehensive search strategy.