Who is willing to come back? College students' willingness to seek help after using campus mental health services

Abstract

Objective: To examine characteristics of college students who have previously received mental health (MH) services on campus and are willing to seek help again in the future.

Participants: Spring 2015 ACHA-NCHA II (N = 12,501) undergraduate respondents who had previously used MH services on their current campus.

Methods: Binary logistic regression with willingness to seek MH services in the future as the dependent variable.

Results: Among students who had already utilized campus MH services, significant predictors for future help-seeking were: female, white, gay/lesbian, those not working for pay, having the college/university health insurance plan, and not currently/previously serving in the military (p < .05).

Conclusions: The predictors for willingness to use services in the future were consistent with the existing literature related to initial use. Colleges and universities need to consider factors that influence openness to MH services after a previous experience in addition to initiating care. Implications for college MH professionals are provided.

Keywords: Mental health services; access to services; college students; counseling services; help-seeking.