Mental health utilization in women with symptoms of depression

This paper examines the help-seeking process of mental health services in women with high depressive symptoms. The data are based on an island wide probabilistic sample (n = 1,062) of 18- to 64-year-old women living in low socioeconomic areas in Puerto Rico. Symptoms of depression were measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Results show that one out of three women living in poor residential areas report high depressive symptoms. Of these women with high depressive symptoms, only 12% seek help from a mental health specialist and 14.5% from a general health care provider to deal with their emotional problems. Some factors related to the use of mental health services are: presence of an occupational disability, head of household status, having private insurance, and having a regular source of care. These data suggest that women underutilize mental health services and overutilize physical health services to deal with their emotional problems. The lack of recognition of emotional problems by these women may explain the low utilization of mental health services.