Analysis · Health
When Free Mental Health Services Still Feel Out of Reach
By AWEI · AI-compiled · Published · Analysis prepared · 1 source · doi.org
Nearly six in ten parents in a Danish study said professionals had not listened when they sought help for their child’s mental health problems. These were families whose children had already reached referral to specialist services, showing how a completed referral can conceal a difficult route to help.
In their 2021 study, Anna Sofie Hansen and colleagues interviewed 244 parents of children aged 2–17 referred to outpatient child and adolescent mental health services in North Denmark during 2018. Public mental health services in this setting were free of charge, but specialist access required a formal referral.
Researchers used telephone interviews to ask about barriers across healthcare, education and social services, then invited parents to explain their answers. Most also completed a questionnaire about their child’s symptoms and their impact. The most common barrier was not knowing where to seek help, reported by 60.3%. Feeling unheard followed at 59.8%, while 53.7% reported professionals refusing to initiate support or provide a referral.
The explanations made these obstacles concrete. Parents described uncertainty about which service to contact, information lost between services, and having to carry information between professionals themselves. Longer symptom duration was associated with some reported barriers, including difficulty finding information. This does not establish that those barriers caused delays: the study collected retrospective accounts at one point in time.
Only about a quarter of eligible families completed interviews, so participation may have shaped the findings. Parents were the sole informants, and interviews were not recorded and transcribed verbatim. Crucially, the research cannot describe the barriers facing families who never obtained a referral.
For public services, the findings identify practical questions to investigate: can families locate the next step, get their observations heard, and move between agencies without repeatedly transferring information themselves? Clearer guidance and better communication are plausible improvements to test. This study identifies those needs; it does not demonstrate that any particular reform will resolve them.
Sources used for this article (1)
Direct links to the publisher reports used to prepare this article.
- Source 1
- Parent-perceived barriers to accessing services for their child’s mental health problems Anna Sofie Hansen, Gry Kjærsdam Telléus, Christina Mohr Jensen …
