Factors contributing to health seeking behaviours among secondary school learners who use alcohol and other drugs in the Western Cape

Abstract

Alcohol and other drug use among South African adolescents remain a growing public health concern, considering the noticeable differences in substance use trends and treatment admissions indicating that the largest proportions of adolescent admissions were in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng (Dada et al., 2018). As highlighted in the Sustainable Development Goals -SDG 3.5, there is an urgent need for substance use prevention and treatment programmes for youth to be prioritised and given the attention it deserves (Mokitimi et al., 2022). The mismatch in proportions of adolescents who need substance use treatment and the proportion of those who received it speaks access to services and health seeking barriers and facilitators (Leijdesdorff et al., 2021). Effective prevention and treatment programmes that target youth should be based on the evidence pertaining to determinants of adolescent substance use behaviours and health seeking behaviours among adolescents (van Pinxteren et al., 2021). Understanding the social and contextual factors for seeking health care would improve the utilisation of services; make it equitable, accessible, acceptable, appropriate and importantly youth-friendly. Earlier research on adolescent health seeking behaviour has primarily focused on and sexual reproductive health care, with little and few research focusing on the health seeking behaviour for mental health problems, including substance, use among adolescents. Research on health seeking behaviour for mental health services among adolescents does however highlight low levels of mental health literacy and an underutilization of mental health services among adolescents.