The Development of Mental Health Literacy Program ~Educational Program for University Students~
Poster C36, Wednesday, October%2010, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Soichi Takamura1, Miho Kondo1, Rie Nagasawa1, Yasutoshi Nekoda2; 1University of Shizuoka, 2Tokyo Metropolitan University
Background: A variety of problems in mental health occur in youth. Early intervention is preferable to obtain good results. But education concerning early prevention is insufficient in Japanese curriculums. Purpose: The purpose of this study is the development and practice, and effects evaluation of program in order to improve mental health literacy for University school students. Methods: We developed three educational programs in a University in Japan. Program A was focusing on usual student’s life stress and coping with it and was administered by a mental health professional. Program B focused on WRAP and was administered by a mental health consumer and Program C focused on types of distress and benefits of the counseling and was administered by a psychologist. We evaluated pre- and post- intervention focusing on help-seeking attitudes scale (ASPH) as related scales of mental health literacy between intervention groups and control groups. Results: Intervention group consisted of 200 students, with a control group of 108 students. Program A significantly improved to an ASPH of 31.2 to 33.1 on average pre- and post- intervention (p<0.001). Program B also improved significantly from 33 to 36.2（p=0.026）and C from 29 to 31.8（p=0.001）. But there were no significant differences in the control groups. Conclusion In each program we found the effect of improvement mental health literacy, especially in program C. The message from the standpoint of consultant was clearly positive. Considering the effect of each program there is a need to develop even more various programs.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions