Stigma, Help-seeking and Factors Associated with Mental Health Literacy in Adults: A Literature Review

Abstract

The article aims to review domestic and foreign research to provide information about the current condition of two of the three aspects of mental health literacy, namely stigma, and help-seeking, and the related factors to understand impact measures to help improve the adults' mental health literacy. This study uses a literature review method with English and Vietnamese keyword searching on PubMed and Vietnamese journals. Results show that stigma happens to be higher in Asian regions than in Australia, Europe, and America. Reducing stigma will improve treatment effectiveness and enhance the mental health literacy of individuals and communities. Regarding help-seeking, it shows that the rate of seeking help ranges from 28.2% to 76.9%. People with low mental health literacy are often less likely to seek help. Age, gender, education level, income, employment position, marital status, medical history, and alcohol use history are factors related to mental health literacy. Previous studies have shown that people with higher knowledge tend to seek help, while those with less stigma have a higher ability to seek help.

Keywords: Related factors, mental health literacy, adults, stigma, help-seeking.