Evaluation of the Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative: Community Program to Promote Awareness About Mental Health and Aging Issues

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate the Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative, designed to promote community awareness and knowledge about mental health and aging issues. This study occurred during 2007-2009 in 67 of 120 counties in Kentucky. A rural region (11 counties) received the intervention, consisting of focus groups, Extension Agent training, and television-based social marketing campaign. Partial-intervention counties (29 counties) received only the television-based social marketing campaign. The control counties (27 counties) received no intervention activities. Results indicated that the intervention counties agreed more with being able to assist elder adults with a potential mental illness. Also, the intervention counties understood the risk of consuming alcohol and medications better, but had a poorer recognition of drinking problems in elder adults. These findings need to be considered within study limitations, such as measurement error, degree of intervention exposure, and regional differences across intervention groups. The study demonstrates that community interventions on mental health awareness and knowledge are feasible within majority rural regions, with Extension Agents being gatekeepers, for promoting positive messages about mental health and aging issues.

“We don't want to talk about that”: Overcoming barriers to rural aging research and interventions on sensitive topics

“…Implementing this project was considered a salient step toward decreasing mental health-related disadvantages experienced by older adults, particularly those residing in rural communities (Glasgow et al, 2004;Mainous and Kohrs, 1995). Through the iterative development and execution of the program, components of community-participation and empowerment were embraced during all phases of the project (See Kruger et al, 2011a;Kruger et al, 2011b;Zanjani et al, 2011).…”

“…The control counties (27 counties) received no intervention activities. The findings demonstrated that community interventions focusing on mental health can be effective within rural regions, as evidenced by an increased level of knowledge, about mental health and aging in intervention counties, assessed through a telephone survey (conducted by an independent contractor unaffiliated with the MHAI project) of 774 randomly selected individuals across the region (see Zanjani et al, 2011).…”

“…Extension Agents can accelerate the dissemination process through community members and those serving in leadership roles, such as with formal and informal community clubs and groups, Advisory Councils, and other organizations that are customarily the most influential opinion leaders (Riley, 2008). By reaching out to rural communities through Extension, the effectiveness of MHAI was significantly enhanced as evidenced by telephone surveys conducted across the region (Zanjani et al, 2011).…”

Mental Health Awareness Phone Polling Survey: Focus on Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, Saudi Arabia

“…Mental health problems afflict people irrespective of their age, gender, socioeconomic status, educational level, profession, marital status, resident status, religion affiliation, ethnicity and creed. Therefore, MH studies assessed MH awareness not only of public but also mental health professionals [18], other health practitioners [19], college students [20,21], indigenous people [22], refugees and homeless people [23] and also people with diverse individual mental disorders [24,25] including schizophrenia [26,27], depression [28][29][30], anxiety disorders [31,32], dementia [33,34], alcohol and other drug abuse, and technology addictions [35,36], personality disorders [37], child and adolescents disorders including suicide and child abuse/neglect [38][39][40], physical comorbidities [41,42], mental health organizations and their impact on MHL [43,44] and intellectual disabilities with MH problems [45]. Furthermore, mental health awareness surveys and implementation of training programs and campaigns have been carried out in several settings targeting different age groups affected by MH problems such as schools [46].…”

Memory Banking

“…A focus on synthesis and integration types of reminiscence is known to promote successful aging (Wong & Watt, 1991). The development of MB builds on findings from earlier research and the Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative (MHAI), a program created to raise awareness and knowledge in rural areas about the mental health of older adults through collaborations with the University of Kentucky’s Cooperative Extension Service (Kruger, Murray, Zanjani, 2011a, 2011b; Zanjani, Kruger, & Murray, 2011). Through MHAI, specific themes related to the management of mental health and aging were identified and incorporated into MB, including the importance of emotional health, the ability to remain active and engaged through old age, the importance of intergenerational activities, and most important being the value of sharing one’s life story.…”