Help Seeking and Entry into Vocational Services by Adults Enrolled in New Hampshire State Mental Health Services: A Pathways-To-Care Study

Abstract

The current study provides naturalistic data documenting the pathways to care to vocational services (VS) for 80 adults who were receiving some form of mental health care through a New Hampshire state mental health service and who had an unmet vocational need but were not currently enrolled in VS. Of the participants, 81.2% had recognized their vocational need, 55.3% reported that they or someone else had sought help to alleviate the need, and 52.6% had participated in some form of VS to address the need. The mean length of the participants' unmet vocational need was 4.4 years, and for those who had previously entered VS the mean length of time until services were first received was more than 2.8 years. The largest portion of the total delay to VS entry was associated with the failure to recognize the need. The results are discussed with respect to possible interventions that could increase access and reduce delays to treatment entry.