Child and Family Social Work 2003, 8, pp 341–350 © 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 341 Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UKCFSChild and Family Social Work1365-2206Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2003November 200384341350Research ReviewResearch Review: Engaging parents and carers with support services – lessons from research on help-seeking K Broadhurst Research Review Research Review Editor: Brid Featherstone Engaging parents and carers with family support services: What can be learned from research on help-seeking? Karen Broadhurst Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. Correspondence: Fernbank, Fernleigh Road, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria LA11 7HT, UK. E-mail: karensroom@btinternet.com INTRODUCTION The importance of gaining insights about help- seeking appears across a number of fields of health and welfare (Hartnoll 1992; Tucker 1995; Baistow & Wilford 2000; Kanaisty & Norris 2000; Ullman & Filipas 2001). A common concern is that those who may need help (or be perceived to need help) do not ask for help from available services. In relation to the welfare of children, whilst there have been a number of very positive changes to the landscape of personal family support services, concerns remain about the uptake of services (Pugh & DeAth 1994; Wattam 1997; Oakley et al . 1998; Frost et al . 2000), the gen- dered pattern of service use (Daniel & Taylor 1999; Pithouse & Holland 1999; Armstrong & Hill 2001), problems of reaching some of the most vulnerable families (Wattam 1997; Colclough et al . 1999; Mac- donald & Williamson 2002) and accessing services in an increasingly diverse landscape of provision (Oakley et al . 1998; Petrie & Wilson 1999; Hallett et al . 2000; Tunstill & Aldgate 2000). It is in this context that questions about help-seeking become highly relevant to the development of family support services. The current landscape of personal family support services can be described as ‘post- Messages from Research [Department of Health 1995]’ (Frost et al . 2000), and is characterized by a mixed economy of traditional and innovative family support initiatives. New developments in personal family support have spawned a flurry of evaluative studies which provide information about the effectiveness of new develop- ments. Many of these recent evaluative studies present some positive responses from target communities (Pithouse & Holland 1999; Department of Health 2000; Armstrong & Hill 2001; Gray 2002; see Smith 1999 for a summary ‘what works’). The central argu- ment of this paper is, however, that whilst the trend towards evaluative studies does provide some infor- mation about sources and types of referral, the cur- rent literature on family support offers limited insights into processes of help-seeking. Evaluative studies which focus on referred populations are problematic, in that it is not possible to assume any direct corre- spondence between referrer and help-seeker. Indeed findings such as those of Thorpe (1997), who found differential rates of complaints and allegations made against single parent and Aboriginal families in an Australian study, and Cawson et al . (2000), who show that the majority of child maltreatment remains under-reported, highlight the inherent problems in drawing conclusions about help-seeking based on referred populations. In the current literature on family support in the UK, important questions about processes prior to and leading up to referral, owner- ship of the referral and the interface between informal and formal support remain unanswered. This paper reviews literature on the subject of help- seeking and ‘stigmatizing problems’, providing an overview of research across fields of health and social welfare. Literature is drawn from mental health, sub- stance abuse, domestic violence and family support/ child protection, from both national and international studies. Literature is also included which offers generic models of help-seeking processes. The ratio- nale for this review strategy is that, whilst the family support literature in the UK offers a limited number of studies related to help-seeking (Gibbons 1990; Farmer & Owen 1995; Pithouse & Holland 1999; Tunstill & Aldgate 2000), in the main research offers findings based on inferences about help-seeking, rather than any detailed study of help-seeking processes. Daro (1993), Daro & Cohn Donnelly (2002) and Tunstill & Aldgate (2000) all offer typologies of help- seeking behaviour; however, these typologies are con- fined to studies of formal service use. Studies such as that of Hallett et al . (2000), which focus specifically on help-seeking and explore divergent pathways to a range of sources of help, are infrequent. In contrast,