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RATIONALE: Children with food allergies spend much of their time in the school setting; therefore, trained school staff are needed to ensure the safety of these children. The primary goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a food allergy education session to improve Colorado school nurses' knowledge, confidence and attitudes regarding management of food allergic children in the school environment. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to attendees (n5261) at the Colorado school nurse training sessions in Spring of 2015. The live training sessions were led by a physician and nurse who used a training module developed by Allergyhome.org as part of the educational session. RESULTS: 124 (47.5%) completed pre-and post-surveys were used for analysis. From baseline to post-training, the median knowledge score increased from 76.92% (SD513.72) to 88.46% (SD58.776; p<.0001). Improvements in knowledge primarily occurred in the areas of how to clean hands (23.39% vs 59.68% correct) and surfaces (59.68% vs 70.16% correct), when to report a reaction to the Department of Education (56.45% vs 87.10% correct), and when to take someone to the hospital by ambulance (79.03% vs 86.29% correct). The median confidence score increased from 25 (SD53.021) to 27 (SD52.996; p<.0001) out of a total of 30. The median attitude score increased from 28 (SD53.495) to 31 (SD53.310, p<.0001) out of a total of 35. CONCLUSIONS: These training sessions significantly improved nurses' knowledge, as well as increased their confidence and attitudes towards proper food allergy management practices in the school setting. Abstracts AB85 SATURDAY

BACKGROUND: Contact has been shown to be one of the most effective methods to reduce mental illness stigma, but prior research on the contact hypothesis has been limited by reliance on retrospective data and forced, laboratory-based contact rather than in community settings. OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this prospective study was to use a vocational rehabilitation center to test the effect of naturally occurring brief indirect contact with a mentally ill sample on mental illness stigma. We also examined correlational patterns among participants' perceptions about treatments for mental illness with mental illness stigma. METHODS: Data were collected at an Italian vocational rehabilitation center using a repeated measures design. A total of 19 participants completed baseline surveys. A subset of 10 participants who also completed post-contact surveys was used to test the contact hypothesis. RESULTS: Analyses showed that positive affect increased from pre-contact (M = 3.87, SD = 1.10) to post-contact (M = 4.53, SD = 0.89; t(9) =-2.74, p = 0.023), and negative affect decreased from pre-contact (M = 2.83, SD = 0.74) to post-contact (M = 2.23, SD = 0.70; t(9) = 3.25, p = 0.010). CONCLUSION: Results show preliminary evidence that vocational rehabilitation center-based contact increased positive affect, and decreased negative affect, towards individuals with mental illnesses in community members.