Publisher's Synopsis
Many service members report suffering from mental health conditions, such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and problematic substance use. While the proportion of service members initiating treatment has increased in the past decade, fewer than half of the service members who indicate a need for mental health services actually receive care. Service members report a variety of barriers, both logistical (e.g., difficulty scheduling an appointment) and attitudinal (e.g., negative beliefs about treatment), to seeking mental health care. This report summarizes the findings of a study to develop an item bank of barriers to mental health care for the Department of Defense (DoD); establish the reliability and preliminary validity of the item bank and a short form (i.e., a subset of items from the bank that can be used as a short survey); and identify options for how DoD can use the item bank to assess and monitor barriers to such ca
