Latina college students are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) and have low rates of formal mental health help-seeking, leading to delayed identification and worse psychosocial outcomes. To develop effective strategies to serve Latina college students with STBs, we first must understand their experiences of mental health help-seeking, including informal mental health support received from peers/family and formal support received from mental health professionals. The purpose of this study is to a) explore and describe the help-seeking experiences of Latina college students with STBs, and b) identify barriers and facilitators to help-seeking from multiple perspectives (from Latinas themselves and informal and formal support persons). Findings will a) provide essential data to support a larger grant proposal to develop and test a help-seeking intervention and b) have direct implications for UCLA’s Hispanic Serving Institution infrastructure initiative, informing mental health policies on college campuses to promote wellbeing for Latinas.

Funding: UCLA Latinx Seed Grant