Results from a systematic review of interventions promoting mental health literacy in youth

Fretian A, Kirchhoff S, Okan O, Bauer U. Results from a systematic review of interventions promoting mental health literacy in youth. European Journal of Public Health . 2022;32(Suppl. 3): ckac129.248.Mental illnesses are amongst the leading causes of ill-health and disability, with most onset of many mental health problems (ca. 75%) emerging before the age of 25 years. Thus, adolescence is an important time period for preventive measures, such as strengthening mental health literacy (MHL). This review aims to give an overview of those interventions which promote MHL on the long run. Methods Five databases were searched for English or German articles published between January 1997 and May 2020, leading to a total of 4,375 original articles. Interventions were included only if they had measured MHL and/or stigma on three different time points, had a control group, and delivered an intervention program. Studies reporting means and standard deviations for the outcomes of interest were further included into a meta-analysis using a random effects model. The analysis was carried out with STATA 16. Results 25 studies were included into the review, and 13 of them were suitable for the meta-analysis. The great majority of studies (76%) were conducted within schools and the addressed topics were general mental health, depression, and schizophrenia. Interventions mostly used psychoeducation or a combination of educational elements and contact as delivery method. The combined use of educational and contact components led to worse results for mental health literacy, but not stigmatizing attitudes or social distance. Generally, interventions led to positive outcomes. The changes were sustained for mental health literacy d = 0.48, as well as for stigmatizing attitudes d = 0.30, and social distance d = 0.16, after an average follow-up of about 5 months. Conclusions MHL-interventions targeting adolescents are mostly conducted within schools and generally have a brief follow-up period. They show a stable improvement in mental health literacy and are to a smaller degree able to destigmatize mental illness or improve social distance

Teachers' supporting students with parents having mental health problems. A scoping review

Children whose parents have mental health issues respond to associated familial stressors with symptomatic behaviors and are, themselves, at considerably higher risk of developing serious mental health problems. Teachers are the most likely professionals who are able to recognize behavior changes and mental health needs of children. This article aims to provide an overview of the current state-of-the-art research on teachers’ mental health literacy including how teachers identify and support these children. A scoping review was undertaken with six databases by using English and German search terms for articles published between January 1990 and July 2017. This review identifies a research gap in mental health (literacy) research for a major cause of mental health issues in children. There is little recognition of students’ familial environment in the research undertaken. The founded studies show that identifying affected children is difficult for teachers. If teachers identify those children, they have great uncertainties to work with this situation. Identified teachers’ responses are insufficient for children and mostly depends on individual attitudes and experience with mental health issues. Teachers are highly stressed by the child’s school situation and need support themselves to support children adequately. Better support for teachers is required in order to prepare them adequately to support children. Based on the results opportunities for teachers’ mental health literacy are discussed to expand teachers’ ability to promote mental health in children with parents having mental health issues as well as future research activities. Keywords: mental health promotion, school teachers, student, mental health literacy, family health.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalNational Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) through CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, of the University of Minho) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio