“The most common way to use the IBM-HS is as a theoretical model to ground conceptualization, measurement, and causal sequencing of the constructs that shape help seeking” (Hammer et al., 2024, p.9).
People investigate mental health help seeking using a variety of methods, with varying levels of expertise and prior experience, under a variety of budgetary and logistical constraints, for a host of different populations, for a variety of reasons. Recognizing this diversity of situation, we developed the Integrated Behavioral Model of Mental Health Help Seeking (IBM-HS) to be flexible, and offer some thing to everyone interested in closing the treatment gap for the population they care about.
Here is an incomplete list of ways that professionals may find utility in using the IBM-HS to guide their scholarly or applied investigation:
- Use the IBM-HS to brainstorm potential help-seeking measures to incorporate in an upcoming survey project
- Use the IBM-HS as an inspiration for help-seeking constructs that might be worth incorporating into a new theoretical model
- Use the IBM-HS measurement guide to think critically about the questions one needs to answer to conduct a thoughtful help-seeking data collection
- Use portions of the IBM-HS mixed-method protocol to inform the design of qualitative semi-structured interviews about help seeking or longitudinal analyses of help-seeking data
- Use the IBM-HS to help them brainstorm what help-seeking determinants might be important to consider when designing a new intervention to close the treatment gap
- Use the IBM-HS to help them think about how help-seeking determinants and help-seeking beliefs can have a causal impact on help-seeking intention and prospective help-seeking behavior via specific mechanisms of change (i.e., attitude, perceived norm, personal agency)
- Use the IBM-HS to as a concrete guide for utilizing the widely-used and empirically-supported reasoned action tradition (e.g., Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, Integrative Behavioral Model, Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction) to guide one’s project
However, it is important to note that all theories, including the IBM-HS, have limitations that should inform what theory is chosen to guide a given project.