Impact of a Mental Health Curriculum on Knowledge and Stigma Among High School Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Self‐Stigma, Mental Health Literacy, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Psychological Help

“…Researchers have linked mental health literacy, self‐stigma of seeking psychological help, and attitudes toward seeking psychological help (Coles & Coleman, ; Corrigan, ; Eisenberg, Downs, Golberstein, & Zivin, ; Milin et al, ; Wright, Jorm, Harris, & McGorry, ). In the following paragraphs, we review the literature on these three key variables and their associations.…”

“…Similarly, although the ability to correctly recognize symptoms of depression (i.e., problem recognition) may be positively associated with favorable help‐seeking attitudes, high levels of self‐stigma may diminish this positive link. Milin et al () found that when mental health literacy is enhanced among high school students, stigmatic views about mental illness tend to decrease. However, to our knowledge, researchers have not examined the potential interactions between mental health literacy and self‐stigma in association with help‐seeking attitudes in college student populations.…”

Enhancing mental health literacy in young people

“…These recommendations are in good alignment with a recent MHL approach that is based on existing classroom friendly pedagogical applications that can be easily and inexpensively delivered within existing educational systems and does not require extracurricular or outside-of-school inputs [2,6]. When applied through enhancing capacity of classroom teachers to integrate evidence-based MHL curriculum resources (http://teenmentalhealth.org/curriculum/) into existing curriculum, as demonstrated by numerous Canadian studies, such interventions can concurrently result in positive MHL outcomes for both students and teachers alike [21][22][23][24]. Additionally, this approach can facilitate the development of an horizontally integrated school-based pathway to youth mental health care that links education and health systems, enhances identification, and facilitates triage and referral of students with mental disorders to local mental health care providers, thus functionally integrating educational and health care delivery systems, even in the absence of specific policies designed to do so [13,25].…”

Effectiveness of the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP) on Depression Literacy and Mental Health Treatment

“…To date, there is minimal empirical evidence or consensus regarding the effectiveness of school‐based educational programs promoting mental health literacy . However, in Canada, the Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide designed to improve mental health literacy, to increase understanding of mental illness, and to reduce stigma associated with mental illness was found to increase knowledge and decrease stigma . Cases finding strategies or those to identify and refer at risk youth are based on the valid premise that the emergences of mental illness in adolescents are under‐identified.…”