Understanding Psychological Help-Seeking: The Role of Perceived LGBTQ+ Community Support

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the relations between perceived LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy and both willingness to seek counseling and use of mental health services in the past year among 721 sexual minority persons. At the bivariate level, we found that LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was positively correlated with both willingness to seek counseling and use of mental health services in the past year. Further, LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was directly and indirectly related to willingness to seek counseling via less public stigma, less self-stigma, and more positive attitudes toward help-seeking in serial. LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was indirectly related to use of mental health services in the past year via these same explanatory variables. Finally, we provide psychometric support for the LGBTQ+ Community Support for Psychotherapy Scale that we developed for this study. Our findings indicate the important role that contextual factors can have on psychological help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and behaviors for sexual minority persons.