"Bottom of my own list:" Barriers and facilitators to mental health support use in caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental support needs

Objectives Caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and problems (NDPs) often experience significant psychological distress. Many caregivers report not accessing support, despite perceiving a need. Given the low rate of support seeking, and the limited research on what promotes utilization for this population, there is a critical need to understand facilitators and barriers to support use, as caregiver psychological distress affects both child and family health. The purpose of this research was to investigate variables that may serve as barriers and facilitators to support use in caregivers of children with NDPs.Methods Caregivers (N = 78) of children with NDPs completed an online survey about their mental health and psychological support use through both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Results Positive correlations with small effect sizes were found between caregiver-reported support use and psychological distress. Most participants (66.2%) were above the clinical cut-off score for either anxiety, depression, or parenting stress. Of these participants, only 48.9% had accessed psychological supports for themselves within the past year. Across mixed-methods, lack of time and difficulties arranging childcare were noted barriers. Participants were also given the opportunity to describe factors that would make psychological supports easier to access, responses were given such as providing caregivers with psychological supports while children receive their specialized services.Conclusion The findings add novel information on factors to increase support use in this population. Future research is needed to better understand barriers/facilitators to support use in this population utilizing a larger sample.