A mental health promotion approach to reducing discrimination about psychosis in teenagers

Abstract

Aim: To examine the effectiveness of a psychosocial mental health promotion workshop, involving an ex‐service‐user researcher, in reducing discrimination about psychosis in teenagers.

Hypothesis: Pupils in the intervention condition will express less discrimination about a man characterised as having experienced psychosis immediately after the workshop and at follow‐up, compared with pupils in the control condition.

Method: A cluster randomised trial was carried out in order to take into account the effect of class group. Ninety‐two pupils participated at baseline; 43 pupils were exposed to the intervention and 49 pupils formed the control group. Pupils completed demographic information, questions about their familiarity with people with mental health problems and a questionnaire examining discrimination about psychosis.

Results: Multi‐level modelling was used to analyse the results. Discrimination scores in the intervention group reduced significantly more than the control group immediately after the intervention. This effect was not sustained at 10‐week follow‐up. Brief qualitative feedback from pupils exposed to the intervention indicated that 70% considered the testimonial from the ex‐service‐user researcher to be the most useful.

Conclusion: A short psychosocial intervention involving a testimonial from an ex‐service user can lead to small but significant reductions in teenagers' discrimination about psychosis immediately after the intervention.

Keywords:

• discrimination
• stigma
• mental health promotion