# Adolescents Identify Modifiable Community-Level Barriers to Accessing Mental Health and Addiction Services in a Rural Canadian Town: A Survey Study

## TL;DR

Adolescents in a rural Canadian town identified community-level issues like lack of awareness and access to professionals as main barriers to mental health care.

## Contribution

This study uniquely captures adolescent perspectives on mental health service barriers in rural areas, highlighting modifiable community-level factors.

## Key findings

- Top barriers included lack of mental health awareness and education in the community.
- Students who had accessed services cited issues with mental health professionals, while others reported fear and uncertainty.
- Modifiable factors like mental health literacy and availability of professionals were identified as key barriers.

## Abstract

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to inadequate provision of mental health and addictions care, as services have been traditionally conceptualized to serve the needs of children or adults. Additionally, rural communities have been largely excluded from research investigating mental healthcare access and exhibit unique barriers that warrant targeted interventions. Finally, perspectives from the target population will be most important when understanding how to optimize adolescent mental health and addictions care. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify what adolescents in a rural town perceive as barriers to accessing mental health services. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study with high school students to generate ranked lists of the top perceived individual-level, community-level, and overall barriers. A total of 243 high school students responded to the survey. Perceived barriers were predominantly at the community level. Overall, the top barriers reported were a lack of awareness and education regarding mental health, resources, and the nature of treatment. Students who had previously accessed mental health services identified primary barriers related to mental health professionals, whereas students who had not accessed care reported fear and uncertainty as primary barriers. Modifiable community-level factors related to (1) mental health literacy and (2) mental healthcare professionals were identified by adolescents as the main perceived barriers to accessing mental health and addiction services in a rural town. The findings of this preliminary study should inform intervention strategies and further rigorous research for this traditionally underserved target population.