Mental Health Education: An Evaluation of a Classroom Based Strategy to Modify Help Seeking for Mental Health Problems

The in every one's mouth study assessed the impact of a brief psychoeducational intervention upon participants' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. The 40-minute intervention focused upon dispelling myths and stigmas associated with mental illness, modifying expectations about psychotherapy effectiveness, and providing pupils with information regarding treatment options. Compared to the mastery condition, participants in the classroom clump showed significant improvements in attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, as well as in a certain number of of their opinions about mental illness, for up to individual month following the intervention. These finding intimate that the use of a brief, classroom-based mental health education program is a promising process to modify help-seeking attitudes and negative opinions of the mentally ill.

The effectiveness of psychotherapy is well documented (Shadish, Matt, Navarro, & Phillips, 2000) Unfortunately, greatest in quantity individuals experiencing psychological distress or substance-related point in disputes in the general population do not look after professional help (Brown & Bradley, 2002; Deane & Chamberlain, 1994; Simoni, Adelman, & Nelson 1991) For example, a national research of more than 20,000 respondent indicated that solitary 28.5% of those individuals who appropriate the criteria for a mental or addictive disorder during a given year actual received any stamp of treatment (Gonzalez, Tinsley, & Kreuder 2002) These findings are consistent with the Center for Mental Health Services' assertion that alone one fourth of the estimated 50 million Americans who are diagnosed with a psychological disorder each year actually look for professional mental health services (Brown & Bradley). This turn appears in all age assemblages including college students. For example, fewer than half of society students in need of mental health services actually look for them out (Oliver, Reed, & Smith, 1998)

The underutilization of professional mental health care is troubling for sum of two units reasons. First, the ubiquity of psychological suffering highlights the ne for quality mental health care. The lifetime prevalence rate of mental illness has been estimated to be as high as 50% among the general population, suggesting that virtually everyone will disentangle and/or have contact with someone who unfolds some form of mental illness (Jorm, 2000) like high prevalence rates have an impact upon both the individual and community horizontal More specifically, individuals living with mental illness face enormous physical and emotional ends (e.g., social isolation, suicide, unemployment homelessness) that impair family, social, and vocational functioning (Herrman, 2001) These and related events represent an increasing public health relate to For example, the World Health Organization reported that mental illness exhibits 10% of the global load of disease and that depression will be single of the largest worldwide health pertain tos by 2020 (Herrman, 2001).

Second although health views indicate that close to 62% of someones with mental disorders do not look for professional help, a large percentage of individuals experiencing psychological distress do seek for help from a variety of nonprofessional sources similar as family members, friends, priests, community nurtures or teachers (Angermeyer, Matschinger, & Riedel-Heller, 1999; Ciarrochi, Deane, Wilson, & Rickwood, 2002) For example, up to 90% of adolescents will discuss their distress with compeers instead of a mental health professional (Ciarrochi et al.). In a cros sectional national view of the German population (N = 1564) Angermeyer et al. reported that the lay support combination of parts to form a whole (e.g., family member or friends) was the preferr process of help seeking for mental disorders, although this priority was dependent on the mark of disorder presented. For example, treatment through a psychiatrist was rated as the preferr process of treatment for schizophrenia, whereas a confidant was rated more highly for depression. Angermeyer and colleagues argued that different attitudes toward these sources may be owed to the adoption of attitudes, values, and belief combination of parts to form a wholes about mental illness found in the general public. That is, public opinion may consider mental health professionals to be more helpful in treating schizophrenia than depression owed to differing perceptions of symptom quality and seriousness, with depression viewed as an extension of normal emotional states and schizophrenia seen as more serious in nature.

The tend to seek help primarily from non-professionals is harassing given the fact that mental health literacy has been set to be poor in the general population. The public's "illiteracy" regarding mental health is characterized by means of a general inability to correctly identify psychiatric bourns a general lack of knowledge regarding symptomatology, and an inaccurate appraisal regarding the effectiveness of medication and counseling (Jorm, 2000) Based upon these findings, it appears that nonprofessionals, although the greatest in quantity widely utilized avenue of help seeking, may be ill-prepared to provide effective help or individual referrals for individuals experiencing psychological distress.