National Center for PTSD, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, 150 South Huntington Ave. (116B-5), Boston, MA 02116, USA.
Psychiatr Serv. 2011 Feb;62(2):135-42. doi: 10.1176/ps.62.2.pss6202_0135.
Although military personnel are at high risk of mental health problems, research findings indicate that many military personnel and veterans do not seek needed mental health care. Thus it is critical to identify factors that interfere with the use of mental health services for this population, and where possible, intervene to reduce barriers to care. The overarching goal of this review was to examine what is known with regard to concerns about public stigma and personal beliefs about mental illness and mental health treatment as potential barriers to service use in military and veteran populations and to provide recommendations for future research on this topic.
Fifteen empirical articles on mental health beliefs and service use were identified via a review of the military and veteran literature included in PsycINFO and PubMed databases.
Although results suggest that mental health beliefs may be an important predictor of service use for this population, several gaps were identified in the current literature. Limitations include a lack of attention to the association between mental health beliefs and service use, a limited focus on personal beliefs about mental illness and mental health treatment, and the application of measures of mental health beliefs with questionable or undocumented psychometric properties.
Studies that attend to these important issues and that examine mental health beliefs in the broader context within which decisions about seeking health care are made can be used to best target resources to engage military personnel and veterans in health care.
尽管军人面临着较高的心理健康问题风险，但研究结果表明，许多军人和退役军人并没有寻求所需的心理健康护理。因此，确定哪些因素会干扰这一人群使用心理健康服务，并在可能的情况下进行干预以减少护理障碍，这一点至关重要。本综述的总体目标是审查与公众污名化以及对精神疾病和精神健康治疗的个人信念有关的担忧，这些担忧可能成为军人和退役军人使用服务的障碍，并就这一主题的未来研究提供建议。
通过对 PsycINFO 和 PubMed 数据库中收录的军事和退役军人文献进行审查，确定了 15 篇关于心理健康信念和服务使用的实证文章。
尽管研究结果表明，心理健康信念可能是这一人群使用服务的一个重要预测因素，但当前文献中存在几个空白。这些局限性包括：缺乏对心理健康信念与服务使用之间的关联的关注、对个人对精神疾病和精神健康治疗的信念的关注有限，以及对心理健康信念措施的应用，这些措施的心理测量特性存在疑问或未经记录。
关注这些重要问题的研究，并在做出寻求医疗保健决策的更广泛背景下研究心理健康信念，可以帮助将资源用于吸引军人和退役军人参与医疗保健。
