An exploration of help-seeking pathways followed by patients seeking mental health care services in Polokwane-Mankweng Hospital Complex

Abstract

A number of studies have indicated that help-seeking pathways followed by individuals suffering from mental disorders and other conditions of ill-health are not random, but are structured by a range of psychosocial and cultural factors. The quality and seriousness of the distress provide the impetus to the pathway, but its direction and duration is shaped by the convergence of psychosocial and cultural factors. This study explored the help-seeking pathways followed by patients receiving mental health care services in Polokwane-Mankweng Hospital Complex (PMHC) in Limpopo Province (South Africa). A qualitative approach was followed and participants were selected through purposive sampling. Ten participants (5 males and 5 females) who are receiving mental health care services at PMHC and were apsychotic at the time were recruited to the study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using content analysis. The following psychological themes emerged from the study: participants’ subjective notions of the events or factors that could have led to their mental illness; their explanations of mental illness; the reasons for entering the mental health care system; the pathways they followed before receiving mental health services in the hospital; concurrent use of hospital mental health services and other services; their experiences of living with mental illness; and, the role of significant others in this regard. The study revealed that various agencies and providers of health care are visited by individuals suffering from mental illness and that there is also some evidence of concurrent use of these services, i.e., Western and African. The findings emphasize that help-seeking pathways are mainly determined by the perceived causes of the illness, which are derived from cultural ideologies.