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A citywide study led by CUNY SPH doctoral graduate Thinh Toan Vu, city research scientist at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, finds that mental health help-seeking among NYC adults differs significantly depending on the combination of a person’s social identities—including race and ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and immigration-related characteristics—rather than any single factor alone. The findings underscore the need for mental health interventions and outreach that account for how these identities intersect, rather than targeting any one factor in isolation.
The 2023 Neighborhood Wellness Survey included 43,606 adults across all five boroughs. About 46.6% of adults sought some form of mental health support in the prior 12 months, with 36.2% from informal sources and 24.2% from formal sources. Among adults with past 30-day moderate-to-high psychological distress, that figure rose to 67.7%.
Family or friends were by far the most common source of support (33.1%), roughly double the next most common source, therapists or counselors (16.8%), and well above psychiatrists or other prescribers (8.6%) and primary care physicians (8.3%).
“Nearly half of New Yorkers sought help for their emotions, nerves, or mental health, and most turned first to family or friends,” says Dr. Vu. “That tells us informal networks remain a critical front line for mental health in our city, and any strategy to improve care has to recognize and strengthen those trusted relationships alongside formal services.”
The study’s central finding is that the associations between mental health help-seeking and gender, employment status, place of birth, and English proficiency differed across racial and ethnic groups, demonstrating that social identities interact rather than act independently. For example, across nearly every racial and ethnic group, men were less likely than women to seek any support, and foreign-born adults were consistently less likely than their U.S.-born peers, but the size of these gaps varied by group. The place-of-birth gap was widest among Black adults (31.1% foreign-born vs. 48.8% U.S.-born), larger than among white adults (46.7% vs. 51.7%).
“Mental health help-seeking does not follow a single pattern,” says Dr. Vu. “Interventions need to account for how these identities intersect, so that we reach the people who are least likely to seek help.”
The 2023 Neighborhood Wellness Survey is a collaboration between NYC Department of Health and CUNY SPH. Strengthening partnerships between academic institutions and public health agencies is key to advancing equity in mental health care.
