New Delhi, June 10: For many adolescents in India, seeking help for anxiety, depression, or emotional distress remains far more difficult than it should be. A new review led by The George Institute for Global Health finds that stigma, poor awareness of mental health, and controlled access to youth-friendly services continue to prevent young people from getting timely support.
Published in SSM – Mental Health, the review synthesizes findings from 26 studies analyzed across India including cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Goa, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, and Vijayawada, making it one of the most comprehensive examinations of adolescent mental health help-seeking in the country to date.
While most mental health conditions first emerge during adolescence, the review found that many young people face major problems in recognizing symptoms, seeking support, and accessing appropriate care. Researchers discovered that multiple obstacles arise from family attitudes, community perceptions, school environments, and constraints within the healthcare system.
India has one of the largest adolescent populations in the world, and there is an enormous gap in treatment. Barriers to care extend beyond awareness; they are visible in families, communities, and schools, as well as in the healthcare system.
Stigma was the most frequently reported barrier across the studies reviewed. Fear of being judged, labelled, or treated differently often prevents adolescents from speaking openly about emotional or psychological difficulties.
The review also highlighted low mental health literacy as a major challenge. Many adolescents, parents, and teachers struggle to recognize signs of mental distress or understand when professional support may be needed. As a result, opportunities for early intervention are often missed.
Apart from these, researchers also identified other restrictions, such as the help-seeking behavior of adolescents in care, such as the dearth of mental health service professionals, the scarcity of adolescent-friendly services, financial barriers, extended distances to health care facilities, and poor previous experiences with health care personnel.
Adolescents also feared that counseling services would break their promise of maintaining confidentiality and disclosing counseling information. As a result, young people often seek support from friends and peers before approaching formal mental health services.
Talking about the findings,Dr. Sudha Kallakuri, Senior Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health India and lead author of the review, said, “Adolescence is an important phase for emotional and psychological development, and many young people have barriers that limit their access to timely support. Evidence shows that stigma, low mental health literacy, worries about privacy, and service access frustration deter many from seeking help. Identifying these challenges requires coordinated efforts in schools, communities, families, and health services.”
It was analyzed that school-based mental health initiatives are effective in increasing mental health literacy, decreasing stigma, improving coping skills, and increasing the likelihood of help-seeking.
The review analyzed the new digital and technology-driven mental health solutions. While mobile and digital-based interventions are good for making mental health support more accessible, their effectiveness remains questionable because of trust and privacy issues, acceptance by parents, and the availability of tech devices.
Professor Pallab Maulik, Director of Research at The George Institute for Global Health India and co-author of the review, said,”The findings highlight that improving adolescent mental health requires much more than expanding clinical services. Young people need trusted, accessible, and youth-friendly support systems. Strengthening mental health literacy, reducing stigma, improving confidentiality within services, and building the capacity of teachers, lay counsellors, and community-based workers can help bridge the large treatment gap that currently exists.”
The review points out the lack of research on marginalized and underserved adolescents like those living in slums and other poor resource settings. Researchers barely found help-seeking studies on adolescents living in urban slums and precarious situations, even though these adolescents are likely to have more significant social and economic difficulties.
Researchers explained that to strengthen mental health care for young adolescents in India, the mental health care system must be strengthened, stigma must be reduced, mental health literacy must be improved, and youth supportive services must be developed.
The outcome indicates that the developing mental health systems and services in India would provide the support young adolescents would need at a critical stage of their development.
The review was authored by Dr. Sudha Kallakuri, Prof. Pallab Maulik, Prof. Maree L. Hackett from The George Institute for Global Health, and Prachi Kaistha from Leeds University, UK.