PREVENTIVE-MIND: survey on school context's knowledge and attitudes towards mental disease
Poster A132, Thursday, October 20, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Karin Furlato1, Irene Picone1, Lidia Andreazza1, Andreas Conca1; 1Department of Psychiatry of Bolzano, South Tyrolean Healthcare Service
Dangerousness, incurability, incomprehensibility and unaccountability are the most widespread prejudices inherent to mental disorder.These false beliefs are a major obstacle to early intervention, adequate treatment and accessibility to relevant services for people with mental disorders.Therefore projects for the promotion of young people mental health cannot overlook the stigma associated with mental distress and should primarily involve education contexts as a whole. The Project “PREVENTIVE-MIND: Mental Health Promotion in High Schools” was started by the Mental Health Service in the high schools of Bolzano a few years ago.Various initiatives have so far been offered to schools and among them there is also a survey that investigates the knowledge and attitudes towards mental health disease among students and teachers.The survey questionnaires were aimed at investigating: the level of knowledge and the presence of false beliefs or prejudices referred to mental disorders; the attitude towards people with mental health problems; the major sources of information and the need for more information on the survey's topic. The research involved 9 High Shools of Bolzano; 1185 questionnaires were filled in, 1017 of which were filled in by students (86 %) and 168 by teachers (14 %).First analyses showed that both students and teachers felt poorly informed on the subject (92 %) and would like to expand their knowledge. Issues related to mental health should be addressed primarily within schools, as the latter are viewed as an asset in the prevention and coping. Data analyses and conclusions of the study will be presented at the conference.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions