Background: Carers are the “invisible backbone” of our healthcare systems, providing essential support to people with chronic physical health conditions. Yet many face significant unmet needs, burdens and psychosocial concerns. Psychological interventions can help carers to manage these impacts, however, carers often demonstrate low engagement with mental health services. In addition to practical and system-level barriers, carers’ role perceptions and attitudes to mental health services may deter them from accessing crucial support for themselves.
Aims: This systematic review aimed to (a) assess the prevalence of psychological support-seeking and mental health service use among carers of people with a chronic physical health condition; (b) identify attitudinal barriers and facilitators; and (c) identify and describe interventions designed to increase engagement with psychological services among carers.
Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL and EMBASE for peer-reviewed articles published in English from 2005-2024 reporting on adult carers of people with a chronic physical health condition seeking psychological support for themselves. Study quality was assessed using the CASP Qualitative Checklist and NIH Study Quality Assessment Tool.
Preliminary results: We identified 8,844 studies, with 166 eligible for full-text review. Fifty-one studies were included for analysis: 24 qualitative, 23 quantitative and 4 mixed methods. Thirty-one studies (61%) were cancer-specific. Overall, quantitative studies reported low rates of carers seeking and accessing psychological services for themselves. Common barriers identified in qualitative studies included prioritising the patient’s needs, low levels of perceived need, mental health stigma, and poor knowledge of available support. No interventions were specifically designed to increase uptake of mental health services among carers.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrate a gap in interventions, tools, and strategies to increase support-seeking among carers experiencing psychological distress. These results will inform the development of a novel, cancer-specific intervention to increase uptake of psychological health services among carers.