Working with young people: the impact of mental health awareness programmes in schools in the UK and Canada

Abstract

The persistent and disabling nature of psychiatric stigma has led to the establishment of global programmes to challenge the negative stereotypes and discriminatory responses that generate social disability, but these initiatives are rarely evaluated. This study compares the effectiveness of school-based interventions with young people aged 14-16 aimed at increasing mental health literacy and challenging negative stereotypes associated with severe mental illness in sites in Canada and the UK. In both countries, short educational sessions were delivered involving a facilitator with direct experience of mental illness. Students in Canada at baseline (N=1501) were significantly more aware than those in the UK (N=635) that schizophrenia is not a split personality, that mental illness is prevalent and that it is a myth that people with schizophrenia are any more likely to be violent than members of the general population. Both the UK and Canada programmes had a favourable impact on students factual recall and reported attitudes at first follow-up. The cumulative proportion of students expressing no social distance across 4 key items improved over time in both the UK (N=512) and Canada (N=634). Therefore, this study shows that short educational workshops can produce positive change in young people’s views of mental illness. However, more robust evaluations are needed to assess the long-term impact of both short and integrated whole school approaches to increasing mental health literacy across the globe.

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