College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
PLoS One. 2023 Apr 5;18(4):e0283518. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283518. eCollection 2023.
Little research attention has been given to understanding the lived experience of parents who access mental health services in the context of child anxiety disorders. This paper reports on findings specific to parents' lived experience of accessing services for their child living with anxiety and the recommendations they provided for improving access.
We used the qualitative research approach of hermeneutic phenomenology. The sample included 54 Canadian parents of youth living with an anxiety disorder. Parents took part in one semi-structured and one open-ended interview. We used a 4 staged data analysis process informed by van Manen's approach and Levesque and colleagues' framework of access to healthcare.
The majority of parents reported being female (85%), white (74%), and single parents (39%). Parents' ability to seek and obtain services was affected by not knowing when or where to access services, having to learn to navigate the system, limited availability of services, lack of timely services and interim supports, limited financial resources, and clinicians' dismissal of parental concerns and knowledge. Provider (ability to listen), parent (willingness to participate in therapy), child (same race/ethnicity as provider), and service characteristics (cultural sensitivity) influenced whether parents perceived services as approachable, acceptable, and appropriate. Parents' recommendations focused on: (1) improving the availability, timeliness, and coordination of services, (2) providing supports for parents and the child to facilitate obtaining care (education, interim supports), (3) improving communication with and among healthcare professionals, (4) the need to recognize parents' experience-based knowledge, and (5) encouraging parents to take care of themselves and advocate for their child.
Our findings point to possible avenues (parents' ability, service characteristics) that can be targeted to improve service access. As experts on their situation, parents' recommendations highlight priority needs of relevance to health care professionals and policymakers.
在儿童焦虑障碍的背景下，很少有研究关注理解寻求心理健康服务的父母的生活体验。本文报告了专门针对父母为患有焦虑症的孩子寻求服务的生活体验的研究结果，以及他们为改善服务获取提出的建议。
我们使用了解释学现象学的定性研究方法。样本包括 54 名加拿大患有焦虑症的青少年的父母。父母参加了一次半结构化和一次开放式访谈。我们使用了一个由 van Manen 方法和 Levesque 及其同事的医疗保健获取框架提供信息的 4 阶段数据分析过程。
大多数父母报告为女性（85%）、白人（74%）和单亲（39%）。父母寻求和获得服务的能力受到以下因素的影响：不知道何时何地可以获得服务、必须学会适应系统、服务可用性有限、服务缺乏及时性和临时支持、有限的财务资源以及临床医生对父母的担忧和知识的轻视。提供者（倾听能力）、父母（愿意参与治疗）、孩子（与提供者同种族/族裔）和服务特征（文化敏感性）影响父母对服务的可接近性、可接受性和适当性的看法。父母的建议主要集中在以下几个方面：（1）改善服务的可用性、及时性和协调性；（2）为父母和孩子提供获得护理的支持（教育、临时支持）；（3）改善与医疗保健专业人员的沟通；（4）需要认识到父母的基于经验的知识；（5）鼓励父母照顾自己并为孩子争取权益。
我们的研究结果指出了可能的途径（父母的能力、服务特征），可以针对这些途径来改善服务获取。作为对其情况的专家，父母的建议突出了与医疗保健专业人员和政策制定者相关的优先需求。
