How does trust affect help-seeking for Depression in Russia and Australia?

International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 2021. Vol. 68. No. 8. P. 1561–1570.

Cavanagh D., Jurcik T., Charkhabi M.

Background:

Depression is a major contributor to the global burden of disease that affects more than 300 million people worldwide. Cross cultural studies find that culture influences levels of trust which can impact upon an individual’s likelihood to seek psychological help when experiencing Depression.

Aims:

Help seeking is essential for improved mental health outcomes. This study aims to consider how trust affects help-seeking as well as examine the differences in stigma and social distance between participants in Russia and Australia.

Method:

Participants consisted of two separate samples from Australian (n = 229) and Russia (n = 259) which were recruited based on a vignette of a diagnostically unlabelled psychiatric case history with Depression using a cross-cultural research design. They completed items on the level of trust in health professionals, stigma and endorsement of help-seeking.

Results:

Findings suggest that trust can predict the endorsement of seeking help from a psychologist. Moreover, trust was lower for participants in Russia compared to those in Australia for mental health professionals. Participants in Russia had higher levels of stigma and social distance than their counterparts in Australia. Overall, participants in Australia were more likely to seek professional help than those in Russia.

Conclusions:

Trust can predict the endorsement of help-seeking from mental health professionals cross culturally. Barriers to help-seeking such as stigma continue to negatively affect mental health outcomes, particularly in Russia.

Keywords: trust, stigma, Cross-cultural, depression, help-seeking