“Where am I meant to go from here?”: Young people’s experiences of navigating referral processes, waiting lists and access pathways in mental health services

Background

Early intervention for mental health problems during youth can contribute to increased quality of life and the reduction in the rates of youth death by suicide. Young people often wait until their distress becomes severe before seeking help and service factors have been identified as impactful in how they access helping interventions.

Objective

This aim of this research was to explore young people’s experiences of accessing mental health services and the interventions provided.

Methods

Constructivist Grounded Theory methods (Charmaz, 2014) were used to analyse data collected from young people (n = 18) aged 16–25 years and living in the North West of Ireland, exploring their mental health help-seeking experiences to services. Data were collected through a focus group (n = 6) and interviews (n = 14), with two participants taking part in both.

Findings

Two sub-categories were identified, 1. Navigating administration and 2. Accessing helping interventions and key findings demonstrate that accessing services can be difficult due to convoluted service pathways that can include lengthy referral processes and waiting lists, especially within public healthcare systems. Actual help-seeking pathways were mapped, and analysis revealed the existence of a ‘referral loop’ where young people with severe distress were continuously referred without interim support, which was found to contribute to suicidality and disproportionately affect care-experienced youth. The most common interventions included psychopharmaceuticals and CBT. Participants reported valuing interventions that included collaboration and listening ear support most.

Conclusion

Ensuring that young people and their families have easier access to developmentally appropriate interventions and timely responses from services is essential in supporting young people with their mental health problems and improving their quality of life, which can reduce negative life outcomes, including death by suicide.