| Title: |
Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? |
| Authors: |
Stevelink, SAM; Jones, N; Jones, M; Dyball, D; Khera, CK; Pernet, D; MacCrimmon, S; Murphy, D; Hull, L; Greenberg, N; MacManus, D; Goodwin, L; Sharp, ML; Fear, NT |
| Publication Year: |
2019 |
| Collection: |
Lancaster University: Lancaster Eprints |
| Description: |
Background: UK armed forces personnel are at risk of occupational psychological injury; they are often reluctant to seek help for such problems. Objective: We aimed to examine and describe sources of support, prevalence and associates of help-seeking among UK serving and ex-serving personnel. Method: A total of 1450 participants who self-reported a stress, emotional or mental health problem in the past 3 years were sampled from a health and wellbeing study and subsequently completed a telephone interview comprising measures of mental disorder symptoms, alcohol misuse and help-seeking behaviour. Results: Seven per cent of participants had not sought any help, 55% had accessed medical sources of support (general practitioner or mental health specialist), 46% had received formal non-medical (welfare) support and 86% had used informal support. Gender, age, perceived health, functional impairment, social support, deployment, alcohol and comorbidity impacted upon the choice of help source. Conclusions: This study found that the majority of those with perceived mental health problems sought some form of help, with over half using formal medical sources of support. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
unknown |
| ISSN: |
2000-8198 |
| Relation: |
Stevelink, SAM and Jones, N and Jones, M and Dyball, D and Khera, CK and Pernet, D and MacCrimmon, S and Murphy, D and Hull, L and Greenberg, N and MacManus, D and Goodwin, L and Sharp, ML and Fear, NT (2019) Do serving and ex-serving personnel of the UK armed forces seek help for perceived stress, emotional or mental health problems? European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10 (1): 1556552. ISSN 2000-8198 |
| Availability: |
https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/169107/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.2491B44 |
| Database: |
BASE |