OBJECTIVE Early school-based interventions provide the opportunity to attack stigmatizing attitudes before they are firmly entrenched, in a ubiquitous institutional setting, and thus may provide optimal conditions for reducing mental illness stigma in the overall population. This study evaluates the effectiveness of classroom-based interventions in reducing stigma and increasing understanding of mental illness and positive attitudes toward treatment-seeking among sixth-grade students. METHODS The ethnically/racially diverse sample (n=721) was 40% Latino, 26% white, and 24% African American; mean age was 11.5. In a fully-crossed design, classrooms from a school district in Texas were randomly assigned to receive all three, two, one, or none of the following interventions: a power-point- and discussion-based curriculum; contact with two college students who described their experiences with mental illness; and exposure to anti-stigma printed materials. Standard and vignette-based quantitative measures of mental health knowledge and attitudes, social distance, and help-seeking attitudes were assessed pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS Printed materials had no significant effects on outcomes and were grouped with the control condition for analysis. For eight of 13 outcomes, the curriculum-only group report significantly more positive outcomes than the control group; the largest between-group differences were seen for stigma awareness and action, recognition of mental illness in the vignettes, and positive orientation to treatment. The contact-alone group report significantly more positive outcomes on three vignette-based measures. CONCLUSIONS Results were most promising for a classroom-based curriculum, which can be relatively easily disseminated to and delivered by teachers, offering the potential for broad application in the population.

Since 1999 there has been a renewed effort addressing the challenges youth face exiting foster care in adolescence, yet outcomes for most youth are still indicating heartbreaking results and it is still not clear what more is needed. Presented is a study addressing what is needed for successful transition. Three major themes emerged; youth focused practice, need for collaboration and better communication with youth, and unmet needs and permanent connections.

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Rationale: Parents are one of several key gatekeepers to mental health (MH) services for adolescents with MH problems. Parental MH stigma is a significant barrier to treatment, yet little is known about how stigma may bias parental recognition of mental illness in youth. Objective: This study examines how stigma influences a critical and early stage of the help-seeking process—the recognition of MH problems in preadolescents by their parents. Method: Parents from a school-based anti-stigma intervention study were analyzed. Logistic regressions examined the association of stigma with parental recognition of MH problems in their preadolescent child (10–12 years old) and that of two preadolescent vignette characters described as having bipolar disorder and social anxiety disorder. Results: The more parents desired their preadolescent child to avoid interaction with individuals with a mental illness—that is, to be more socially distant—the less likely these parents believed their child had a MH problem, controlling for parent-reported MH symptoms and other covariates. This pattern was prominent among parents who reported high symptoms in their child. Social distance had no bearing on whether parents recognized the vignette characters as having a problem. Avoidance of individuals with a mental illness and knowledge/positive MH attitudes were not associated with problem recognition. Conclusion: Stigmatizing attitudes of parents may be detrimental when trying to understand the psychopathology of their own preadolescent children but not preadolescents outside their family. Stigma may present itself as a barrier to problem recognition because it may impose a significant personal cost on the family, thereby affecting the help-seeking process earlier than considered by previous work.

Background Systems of care is a family centered, strengths-based service delivery