Adolescent mental health education InSciEd Out: a case study of an alternative middle school population

Abstract

BackgroundMental illness contributes substantially to global disease burden, particularly when illness onset occurs during youth and help-seeking is delayed and/or limited. Yet, few mental health promotion interventions target youth, particularly those with or at high risk of developing mental illness (“at-risk” youth). Community-based translational research has the capacity to identify and intervene upon barriers to positive health outcomes. This is especially important for integrated care in at-risk youth populations.MethodsHere the Integrated Science Education Outreach (InSciEd Out) program delivered a novel school-based anti-stigma intervention in mental health to a cohort of seventh and eighth grade at-risk students. These students were assessed for changes in mental health knowledge, stigmatization, and help-seeking intentions via a classroom activity, surveys, and teacher interviews. Descriptive statistics and Cohen’s d effect sizes were employed to assess pre–post changes. Inferential statistical analyses were also conducted on pilot results to provide a benchmark to inform future studies.ResultsElimination of mental health misconceptions (substance weakness p = 0.00; recovery p = 0.05; prevention p = 0.05; violent p = 0.05) was accompanied by slight gains in mental health literacy (d = 0.18) and small to medium improvements in help-seeking intentions (anxiety d = 0.24; depression d = 0.48; substance d = 0.43; psychosis d = 0.53). Within this particular cohort of students, stigma was exceptionally low at baseline and remained largely unchanged. Teacher narratives revealed positive teacher views of programming, increased student openness to talk about mental illness, and higher peer and self-acceptance of mental health diagnoses and help-seeking.ConclusionsCurricular-based efforts focused on mental illness in an alternative school setting are feasible and integrated well into general curricula under the InSciEd Out framework. Preliminary data suggest the existence of unique help-seeking barriers in at-risk youth. Increased focus upon community-based programming has potential to bridge gaps in translation, bringing this critical population to clinical care in pursuit of improved mental health for all.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, ID:NCT02680899. Registered 12 February 2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02680899

Identifying the prerequisites, facilitators, and barriers in improving adolescents' mental health literacy interventions: A systematic review

“…Most of these interventions were provided in the form of health education classes or workshops. [ 10 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ]…”

What are the barriers, facilitators and interventions targeting help-seeking behaviours for common mental health problems in adolescents? A systematic review

“…Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention combining depression awareness and a suicide prevention programme promoting early identification and self-referral [99,100]. Six classroom-based interventions addressing stigma were identified, two of which used psychoeducation to overcome myths regarding mental illness [101,102] and four focused on providing interpersonal contact with people with mental health conditions in order to improve acceptance and increase helpseeking intentions [103][104][105][106].…”

Estrategias para la reducción del estigma hacia la salud mental en el contexto escolar:estudio preliminar y pilotaje del programa Lo Hablamos

“…Son numerosas las experiencias que se vienen desarrollando para disminuir el estigma y promover la salud mental en el contexto escolar. A pesar de la enorme disparidad existente entre las mismas en cuanto a metodología, grado de estructuración, extensión y otros parámetros relevantes, en líneas generales en la mayoría de los trabajos se hace notar el efecto positivo inicial que tienen sobre las actitudes estigmatizantes, subrayándose la rentabilidad de las mismas (Andersen, 2013;Bentham, Daunt, Taylor y Simmons, 2013;Bulanda et al, 2014;Giannakopoulos et al, 2012;Gronholm, Nye, y Michelson, 2018;Hayes et al, 2019;Ke et al, 2015;Ojio et al, 2015;Puolakka, Haapasalo-Pesu, Konu, Åstedt-Kurki y Paavilainen, 2014;Sakellari, Sourander, Kalokerinou-Anagnostopoulou y Leino-Kilpi, 2014;Skre et al, 2013;Stuart et al, 2014;Yang, Cervera, Tye, Ekker y Pierret, 2018). En nuestro contexto se han publicado estudios de eficacia con programas como el "What´s up" (Andrés-Rodríguez et al, 2017), el "EspaiJove" (Casañas et al, 2018) o el "Stigma-Stop" (Cangas et al, 2019;Cangas et al, 2017), incluyendo en algunos casos tecnologías como la realidad virtual como en el "Inclúyete VR" (Cangas y Galván, 2020).…”