Stigma main obstacle to seeking help for mental illness issues – survey

Stigma-related factors are perceived as being major barriers in discouraging people from seeking support for mental health issues, according to a new Church of Ireland survey.

Over 60 per cent of respondents saw stigma-related factors as barriers to seeking support from healthcare professionals (63 per cent) or clergy (62 per cent). Just under half of respondents (49 per cent) saw stigma as a factor in not seeking support from family members.

The importance of strong connections to family and friends for good mental health was emphasised by respondents, with 45 per cent saying such connections were the most important factor in preventing mental health issues.

The online survey, completed by 1,322 lay members of the Church of Ireland and 290 clergy, also found that almost 90 per cent of respondents felt faith was important to their mental health.

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However just 46 per cent of clergy surveyed disagreed that the Church of Ireland provided them with good support for their own mental health, with 21 per cent agreeing it did. The remaining third neither agreed or disagreed.

The history of the Troubles is acknowledged as having had a substantial and long-lasting impact on mental health in Northern Ireland. There, as the survey says, research has established that 39 per cent of the population in Northern Ireland had reported experiencing a traumatic event relating to the Troubles.

Trauma from those years has been cited as a contributing factor to the high suicide rates in the region which is higher than the rate in either Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland and with a 25 per cent higher incidence of mental health problems than England and significantly higher levels of depression than in Great Britain.

Economic costs

Meanwhile mental health problems in the Republic costs the Irish economy over € 8.2 billion annually, with reported rates of depression above the European average for both men and women, and also one of the highest reported rates of mental illness in Europe.

Bishop of Meath and Kildare Most Rev Pat Storey, who is Chair of the project group team and advisory group for MindMatters COI which prepared the report, said that: "If there was ever a need for such a project, it is during a worldwide public health pandemic where our mental health has been stretched to its limits. Everyone, no matter how resilient, has had bad days."

She continued:”We have never faced such a prolonged state of isolation and have had to dig deep to find the resources within each of us to bear it.”

There are 375,400 Church of Ireland members across the island of Ireland, around 34 per cent (126,400) in the Republic of Ireland and 66 per cent (249,000) in Northern Ireland. These proportions were almost exactly reversed in the survey, with 68 per cent of respondents from the Republic and 32 per cent from Northern Ireland.