SOCIAL STIGMAS OF MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING FOR THE YOUTH POPULATION

This study was a quantitative survey that examined the parental perspectives concerning mental health counseling after their children received mental health services. The focus of this study was to analyze changes in parental perspectives in regard to mental health services for their children. The study considered social stigmas and diagnostic labels associated with mental health and counseling for mental health. The study found that parents whose children received mental health services reported they and their children had a positive experience. In addition, parents were open to receiving mental health counseling services in the future. The study was conducted within a targeted population of participants of one mental health clinic; therefore results do not reflect all cases of parental perspectives regarding mental health services. In addition, parental access was somewhat restricted due to conflicting schedules between the parents and researchers. Furthermore, parental education and notification of the counseling process was limited which resulted in poor response on the knowledge of number of sessions provided and the duration of each session. Lastly, recommendations for future data collection and analyses were made in order to identify additional data on demographics to improve services to the targeted population