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Exploring Health-Seeking Behaviors Among Healthcare Workers and the General Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic:

Gabriela Castañeda-Millán^1,2, Alexia M Haritos^1,3, Edris Formuli^1,4

¹Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, ReSTORE Lab, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Health Services Insights

|February 7, 2025

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Mental health issues are prevalent among healthcare workers, but help-seeking behavior in this groups remains under-researched. The purpose of this study was to explore predictors of and barriers to mental health help-seeking among healthcare workers in Canada, compared to workers from other sectors.

Design:

This quantitative study analyzed cross-sectional data from Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) from October 2022 to January 2024.

Methods:

The total sample consisted of 8,191 workers from various sectors, including 419 healthcare workers. We examined prevalence of help-seeking, barriers to accessing mental health support, and predictors of help seeking using descriptive and inferential statistics. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the relationship between sociodemographic factors and help-seeking.

Results:

Healthcare workers were more likely to seek mental help support compared to workers from other sectors (OR 1.73, 95% CI: 1.35, 2.20). Healthcare workers least likely to seek mental health support were male (OR 0.58, CI 0.52, 0.66), residing in Quebec (OR 0.49, 95% CI: 0.41, 0.59), or of older age (OR 0.40, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.52). Key barriers to mental health help-seeking identified among healthcare workers included concerns about exposure to COVID-19 (33%), preference for self-management (25%), concerns about the safety of care options (18%), and lack of knowledge on how or where to seek help (13%).

Conclusions:

This study provides valuable insight into the barriers and predictors of mental help-seeking behavior among healthcare workers. Findings underscore the need for workplaces to foster safe, supportive, and inclusive environments to better support healthcare workers facing mental health challenges.

Keywords:

Canada Mental health barriers healthcare workers help-seeking behavior mental health services predictors sociodemographic factors

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