Mentor: Vaishali Raval, Ph.D.

The Czech Republic is a high-income country in Eastern Europe with a history of communist influence, where a majority of residents struggling with mental health do not utilize services (Kagstrom et al., 2019). This study aimed to examine folk perceptions of mental healthcare, including the effects of the country’s history, most significant barriers to accessing care, experiences with professionals, and suggestions for systemic improvement. An anonymous mixed methods online survey was sent to 18-24 year old college students in the capital city of Prague (N=38), in which they were prompted with voluntary fixed-response and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative entries, while an inductive content analysis was applied for the qualitative entries. Over half of participants reported historical stigma or communist influence on care and unreceptive familial opinions. Mental health professionals regularly encouraged questions and feedback, but also had cultural misunderstandings with participants and did not typically explain their therapeutic approach. Of the participants who had received services before, they found the process of finding a professional as somewhat difficult and nearly half would not see one again. The common barriers to accessing care were availability and cost, stigma, minimal education and awareness, and language. The common suggestions for improving care were emphasizing education and awareness, modernizing the system overall, more open-minded approaches, and expanding non-Czech language options. The current findings can implicate mental health policy decisions and professional approaches in therapy sessions.

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