Facilitators and Barriers Highlighted by On-Campus Service Providers for Students Seeking Mental Health Services

Oct 15, 2026

The prevalence of mental illness among post-secondary students is rising while uptake of campus mental health services remains suboptimal. Using service providers’ perspectives, a study examined facilitators and barriers affecting help-seeking. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were analyzed with thematic analysis in NVivo. Facilitators included improved communication, equity and inclusion, stronger social media promotion, and incentives, while barriers included fear of judgement, time constraints, perceived need, unawareness, and reduced staff and physical resources.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Mental illness and student stress

Campus mental health service uptake

Need for stakeholder perspectives

Facilitatorsand Barriers Highlighted by On-Campus Service Providers for Students Seeking Mental Health Services Hana MacDonald University of Guelph Konrad Lisnyj University of Guelph Andrew Papadopoulos University of Guelph Abstract The prevalence of mental illness is increasing among post-secondary students. Despite more mental health services being offered within post-secondary institutions, uptake among students remains suboptimal. This study aimed to examine facilitatorsand barriers for students seeking mental health services through service providers’ perspectives. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted at a southwestern Ontario post-secondary institution and were analyzed using thematic analysis using NVivo. Facilitators revealed include strengthening communication techniques; improving equity, diversity, and inclusion; increasing social media promotion; and providing incentives. Barriers identified include fear of judgement, time constraints, individual perceptions of the need for services, unawareness, and higher-level barriers such as lowered capacity of staff and physical resources. These facilitators and barriers should be used in tandem with the Theory of Planned Behaviour to help improve uptake and effectiveness of campus mental health services. Keywords: student mental health, facilitators, barriers, stakeholder perspective, on-campus services, post-secondary students, Theory of Planned Behaviour Résumé La prévalence des troubles mentaux augmente pour les étudiants postsecondaires. Malgré l’augmentation des services desanté mentale offerts dans les établissements postsecondaires, l’adoption parmi les étudiants reste sous-optimale. Cette étude visait à examiner les facilitateurs et les obstacles pour les étudiants cherchant des services de santé mentale du point de vue des fournisseurs de services. Vingt-quatre entretiens semi-structurés ont été menés dans un établissement postsecondaire du sud-ouest de l’Ontario et ont fait l’objet d’une analyse thématique à l’aide de NVivo. Les facilitateursrévélés comprennent le renforcement des stratégies de communication, l’amélioration des pratiques d’équité, de diversité et d’inclusion, l’augmentation de la promotion sur les réseaux sociaux et l’offre d’incitatifs. Les obstacles recensés comprennent la peur du jugement, les contraintes de temps, les perceptions individuelles du besoin de services, l’ignorance et les obstacles de niveau supérieur tels que la capacité réduite du personnel et des ressources physiques. Ces facilitateurs et obstacles devraient être utilisés en tandem avec la théorie du comportement planifié pour améliorer l’utilisation et l’efficacité des services de santé mentale sur les campus. Mots-clés : santé mentale de la population étudiante, facilitateurs, obstacles, points de vue des parties prenantes, services sur le campus, étudiants de niveau postsecondaire, théorie du comportement planifié Introduction Marked increases in mental illness symptoms have been recently exhibited among Canadian post-secondary students, specifically relating to stress and anxiety (Ameri- can College Health Association, 2019) . During this time, young adults may be transitioning to new environments, lacking proper social supports, having strained romantic and family relationships, and experiencing financial difficulties and academic-related stress (American College Canadian Journal of Higher Education | Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur 52:2 (2022) Health Association, 2019) . For these reasons, students are more prone to experience both acute and chronic stress compared to their general population counterparts (Stallman, 2011; Wiens et al. , 2020) . A recent survey among Canadian post-secondary students reported an alarming proportion of students experienced more than average (45 .6%) and tremendous (15%) stress. Further, 70% of Canadian students felt overwhelming anxiety in the past 12 months (American College Healt

FAQs

What was the goal of the study?

To examine facilitators and barriers for students seeking mental health services, based on service providers’ perspectives.

How was the research conducted?

Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted at a post-secondary institution in southwestern Ontario and analyzed using thematic analysis in NVivo.

What facilitators and barriers did providers identify?

Facilitators included better communication, improved equity/diversity/inclusion, increased social media promotion, and incentives; barriers included fear of judgement, time constraints, perceived need, unawareness, and higher-level issues like reduced staff capacity and physical resources.

Oct 15, 2026

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