Survey finds Americans hesitant to seek mental health for confidentiality reasons

A survey from the American Psychiatric Association has found that workers' fears about losing their status at work and about confidentiality are the reasons American workers hesitate to seek treatment for mental health issues, HealthDay/BusinessWeek reports.

"More than 40 percent of the 1,129 respondents said their employer was supportive or extremely supportive of their workers seeking care for health concerns. However, the online survey also found that barriers persist for workers who said their workplace is unsupportive of employees seeking treatment, especially for mental health concerns." Among those surveyed, 76 percent felt their work status would be damaged if they sought treatment for drug addiction, compared to "73 percent (who felt that way) for alcoholism, and 62 percent for depression, compared with 55 percent who thought seeking care for diabetes would affect their work status and 54 percent for heart disease" (Preidt, 1/31).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.