Good mental health literacy in young people and their key helpers may lead to better outcomes for those with mental disorders, either by facilitating early help‐seeking by young people themselves, or by helping adults to identify early signs of mental disorders and seek help on their behalf. Few interventions to improve mental health literacy of young people and their helpers have been evaluated, and even fewer have been well evaluated. There are four categories of interventions to improve mental health literacy: whole‐of‐community campaigns; community campaigns aimed at a youth audience; school‐based interventions teaching help‐seeking skills, mental health literacy, or resilience; and programs training individuals to better intervene in a mental health crisis. The effectiveness of future interventions could be enhanced by using specific health promotion models to guide their development.

Personal experiences, parental attitudes and campaigns all affect stigmatising attitudes.

Introduction Increasing smartphones access has allowed for increasing development and use of smart phone applications (apps). Mobile health interventions have previously relied on voice or text-based short message services (SMS), however, the increasing availability and ease of use of apps has allowed for significant growth of smartphone apps that can be used for health behaviour change. This review considers the current body of knowledge relating to the evaluation of apps for health behaviour change. The aim of this review is to investigate approaches to the evaluation of health apps to identify any current best practice approaches. Method A systematic review was conducted. Data were collected and analysed in September 2016. Thirty-eight articles were identified and have been included in this review. Results Articles were published between 2011- 2016, and 36 were reviews or evaluations of apps related to one or more health conditions, the remaining two reported on an investigation of the usability of health apps. Studies investigated apps relating to the following areas: alcohol, asthma, breastfeeding, cancer, depression, diabetes, general health and fitness, headaches, heart disease, HIV, hypertension, iron deficiency/anaemia, low vision, mindfulness, obesity, pain, physical activity, smoking, weight management and women's health. Conclusion In order to harness the potential of mobile health apps for behaviour change and health, we need better ways to assess the quality and effectiveness of apps. This review is unable to suggest a single best practice approach to evaluate mobile health apps. Few measures identified in this review included sufficient information or evaluation, leading to potentially incomplete and inaccurate information for consumers seeking the best app for their situation. This is further complicated by a lack of regulation in health promotion generally.

Objective: To determine the mental health first-aid knowledge and beliefs of young people and their parents.

Gender differences in mental health literacy are striking. Males showed significantly lower recognition of symptoms associated with mental illness and were more likely endorse the use alcohol to deal with mental health problems. Such factors may contribute to the delays in help seeking seen in young males. Further research is needed to delineate how these gender differences in young people may obstruct help seeking, early intervention and other aspects of mental health service delivery.

Objectives: To assess young people's ability to recognise clinically defined depression and psychosis, the types of help they thought appropriate for these problems, their knowledge of appropriate treatments, and their perceptions regarding prognosis. Design: A cross‐sectional telephone survey using structured interviews. Vignettes of a person with either depression or psychosis were presented, followed by questions related to recognition of the disorder, best forms of treatment and the prognosis. Participants: A randomly selected sample of 1207 young people aged 12–25 years. Setting: Melbourne, Victoria, and surrounding regional and rural areas. Outcome measures: Responses to a mental health literacy questionnaire. Results: Almost half the respondents were able to identify depression correctly, whereas only a quarter identified psychosis correctly. Counsellors and family or friends were the most commonly cited forms of best help, with family or friends preferred by the younger age group for depression. General practitioners were considered more helpful for depression, and psychiatrists and psychologists more helpful for psychosis. Most respondents considered counselling and psychotherapy to be helpful. However, more than half the respondents expressed negative or equivocal views regarding the helpfulness of recommended pharmacological treatments. Conclusions: The limitations we identified in youth mental health literacy may contribute to the low rates of treatment and the long duration of untreated illness reported in other studies. There is a need for initiatives to enhance mental health literacy among young people, and those close to them, if benefits of early treatment are to be realised.

Background: Recent systematic reviews have suggested that pedometers may be effective motivational tools to promote walking. However, studies tend to be of a relatively short duration, with small clinical based samples. Further research is required to demonstrate their effectiveness in adequately powered, community based studies.

These findings support the view that improving the use of psychiatric labels by young people is beneficial, because it facilitates appropriate help-seeking and treatment choice. The label may be the cue to activating a schema about appropriate action to take.