In the IBM-HS, past help seeking experience refers to the prior receipt of mental health care from a mental health professional. Consistent with this, studies on professional mental health commonly document an association between past help seeking experience and more favorable help-seeking perceptions (e.g., Han et al., 2018; Roberts et al., 2018).
For more details about this help-seeking determinant, please read Hammer and colleagues (2024), from which a portion of the information about this construct is excerpted.
A description of available past help-seeking experience measures can be found on the Past Help-Seeking Experience Measures page.