How parents can help or hinder access to mental health services for young people

Aim: To explore adolescent experiences of accessing and utilising mental health service in Perth, Western Australia. This paper focusses on the adolescent identified influence of parents in accessing and using mental health services.Method: Qualitative semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 22 adolescents aged 14-18 years old in Perth, Western Australia. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Results: The influence of parents on adolescents' experiences within the mental health system were grouped under three themes: parental involvement in accessing and continued use of mental health services for their children; parental understanding and awareness of child's mental health problems; parent-child relationship. It was common for adolescents to report that the influence and involvement of their parents could create facili-tators and barriers to mental health care.Conclusion: This research highlighted the complexities in how parents can be both supportive and hindering influences in their child's mental health care. Adolescent experiences highlight the need for parents to be a key area of focus for mental health services and future reforms to support and improve adolescent mental health service use. Additional research is needed to explore how to effectively increase parental mental health literacy in the community and what factors are needed to create trusted parent-adolescent relationships.

Automated summary

Aim of this study was to explore adolescent experiences of accessing and utilising mental health service in Perth, Western Australia. This paper focuses on the adolescent identified influence of parents in accessing and using mental health services. Qualitative semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 22 adolescents aged 14-18 years old in Perth, Western Australia. Results showed that parents' influence on adolescents' experiences within the mental health system were grouped under three themes: parental involvement, understanding and awareness, and parent-child relationship. Adolescents reported that parents' influence could create facilitators and barriers to mental health care. This research highlights the complexities in parent's role in adolescent mental health care and emphasizes the need for parental support and education.