Conceptually, this work extends beyond traditional motivation-based models by emphasizing the infrastructural and serendipitous nature of mental health access.

Our analysis identifies:
✔️ The infrastructural conditions that make transformative care encounters possible
✔️ The aspiration breakdowns that hinder care-seeking
✔️ Design opportunities to embed technology-mediated care encounters into socio-technical systems that support vulnerable populations

But we also uncovered powerful: “care encounters.”
💡 These are serendipitous interactions with mental health resources that happen when people are not actively seeking support.
💡 They often become critical turning points, sparking shifts in aspiration and enabling more proactive care-seeking.

Through in-depth #interviews assisted with visual elicitation with 18 diverse U.S. participants, our study shows how marginalized identities shape mental health care-seeking journeys—often marked by low #aspirations and #passive engagement shaped by experiences of marginalization.