School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Australas J Ageing. 2023 Sep;42(3):603-608. doi: 10.1111/ajag.13185. Epub 2023 Mar 14.
Rates of help-seeking for mental health problems among older adults are low and initiatives to increase help-seeking in older populations are limited. To our knowledge, no interventions have aimed to promote help-seeking among older adults by tapping internal motivations to seek help. In this paper, we describe the development of a theory-based intervention designed to promote mental health help-seeking among older adults in Australia, using an internal motivation paradigm.
The intervention was co-designed through a consultative process with nine key stakeholders who represented five main groups: primary health-care providers, mental health professionals, health-care executives, community organisations and consumers. Development was an iterative process, based on best practice guidelines. Nineteen older adults (≥65 years) provided feedback on the acceptability of the intervention.
The intervention consisted of a help-seeking brochure with behaviour change messages based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Messages targeted older adults' attitudes towards help-seeking, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and barriers to seeking help. Most participants (74%) responded with agree/strongly agree to 10 items measuring the acceptability of the intervention, indicating the intervention is relevant, clear, appropriate and appealing.
The present intervention appears to be an acceptable way to promote help-seeking for mental health problems among older adults. A larger, robust trial is warranted to determine the effectiveness of the intervention in improving help-seeking attitudes, intentions and behaviour. The intervention has the potential to increase older adults' engagement with mental health support and improve health outcomes in this population.
老年人寻求心理健康问题帮助的比率较低，旨在增加老年人群体寻求帮助的举措有限。据我们所知，还没有干预措施旨在通过挖掘寻求帮助的内在动机来促进老年人寻求帮助。在本文中，我们描述了一种基于理论的干预措施的开发，该措施旨在通过内部动机范式促进澳大利亚老年人的心理健康寻求帮助。
该干预措施通过与九位主要利益相关者的协商过程共同设计，他们代表五个主要群体：初级保健提供者、心理健康专业人员、医疗保健主管、社区组织和消费者。开发是一个迭代过程，基于最佳实践准则。19 名老年人（≥65 岁）对干预措施的可接受性提供了反馈。
干预措施包括一本带有基于计划行为理论（TPB）的行为改变信息的寻求帮助小册子。信息针对老年人对寻求帮助的态度、主观规范、感知行为控制和寻求帮助的障碍。大多数参与者（74%）对 10 个衡量干预措施可接受性的项目表示同意/强烈同意，表明干预措施是相关的、清晰的、适当的和吸引人的。
目前的干预措施似乎是一种可接受的促进老年人寻求心理健康问题帮助的方法。需要进行更大、更有力的试验来确定该干预措施在改善寻求帮助的态度、意图和行为方面的有效性。该干预措施有可能增加老年人对心理健康支持的参与度，并改善该人群的健康结果。
