Background Mental health stigma-reducing and awareness trainings encourage trainees to talk about mental health with the hope that increased discussions will lead to reduced stigma and increased access to mental health services. This survey study aimed to examine the current levels of confidence among participants, or “first aiders” who completed the Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training in their ability to demonstrate the skills that were taught in the training. Additionally, this study examined the difference in levels of confidence between the YMHFA instructors and first aiders in the ability of the first aiders to demonstrate the skills that were taught in the training. We examined differences in levels of confidence among first aiders according to their socio-demographic and personal characteristics. Finally, we explored the ways in which first aiders who completed the course used their knowledge and skills after the training. Methods Seven hundred fifty-seven first aider participants were surveyed post-training and 129 first aider participants were surveyed at follow-up. Fourteen YMHFA instructors were surveyed. Results The data indicated that there was a significant decrease in confidence among first aiders between post-training and follow-up. With the exception of age, there were no statistically significant differences in levels of confidence among first aiders according to the following sociodemographic and personal characteristics: a.) gender; b.) race; c.) reason for attendance; d.) role of use. Survey data also indicated the various ways in which first aiders are currently using their training. Conclusions First aiders’ confidence declined after follow-up even though they reported various ways in which they are using their training. Instructors reported positive perceptions of the training and reported a high level of confidence in the ability of their trained first aiders to demonstrate the taught skills.

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The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between first-generation college students' (FGCSs) help-seeking attitudes, as measured by the Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help – Short Form (Fischer & Farina, 1995); public stigma, as measured by the Perceptions of Stigmatization by Others for Seeking Psychological Help (Vogel, Wade, & Ascheman, 2009); personal stigma, as measured by the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale Working (Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006); social support, as measured by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Dahlem, Zimet, & Walker, 1991); and perceived discrimination, as measured by the revised Everyday Discrimination Scale (Stucky et al., 2011). The researcher further investigated mediating effects of public and personal stigma in the relationships among the constructs. The researcher found statistically significant relationships among the variables for FGCSs and mediating effects of personal and public stigma. Specifically, public stigma mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and personal stigma and the indirect effect of perceived discrimination on personal stigma via public stigma was statistically significant (ß = .070, p = .030). Personal stigma also fully mediated the relationship between public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and the indirect effect of public stigma on help-seeking attitudes via personal stigma was statistically significant (ß = -.231, p < .001). Public stigma partially mediated the relationship between social support and personal stigma and the indirect effect of social support on personal stigma via public stigma (ß = -.089, p = .010) was statistically significant. In addition, both public and personal stigma partially mediated the relationship between social support and help-seeking attitudes. The indirect effect of social support on help-seeking attitudes via both public and personal stigma was statistically significant (ß = .062, p = .015). The researcher presented discussion of results, limitations of the study, and implications of the findings.

Background: Stigmatization of people with schizophrenia remains a highly relevant topic worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like India. It is crucial to identify the determinants of the desire for social distance as a proxy for discriminatory behavior in a socio-cultural context to indicate ways to reduce stigma. This study aims to explore whether the public perception of the perceived course of an illness concerning people with symptoms of schizophrenia has an impact on the desire for social distance. Subjects and Methods: Data collection took place in five cities in India. The sample (N = 447) was stratified for gender, age, and religion. Desire for social distance was sampled based on a self-reported questionnaire using unlabelled vignettes for schizophrenia. First, factor analysis was conducted to identify the main factors underlying the perception of the perceived course of the illness. Subsequently, a regression analysis was conducted to examine the impact of the perception of those prognostic factors on the desire for social distance. Results: Factor analysis revealed two independent factors of the perceived course of an illness: (1) life-long dependency on others and loss of social integration and functioning and (2) positive expectations toward treatment outcome. This second factor was significantly associated with a less desire for social distance toward persons with schizophrenia. Conclusion: The desire for social distance toward people with schizophrenia reduces with the expectation of positive treatment outcomes which underlines the need to raise public mental health awareness and provide psychoeducation for affected people and their family members in India. Help-seeking behaviors can be promoted by directing those needing treatment toward locally available, affordable and credible communitybased services rather than facility-based care. Strikingly, lifelong dependency and the inability to socially integrate do not increase the desire for social distance, reflecting the Indian nation’s socio-relational values and insufficiency of public mental health services. This indicates the suitability of systemic therapy approaches in public mental healthcare services to support the family’s involvement and family-based interventions in caregiving for mentally ill people across the lifespan.

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The stigma of mental illness endorsed by healthcare professionals has been linked to adverse outcomes. This issue underscores the need for early anti-stigma interventions in the context of professional training. The present study measured stigma change and suicide screening behaviors among medical, nursing, and pharmacy students enrolled in an interprofessional Communication Skills for Healthcare Professionals course. The Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS; Evans-Lacko et al., 2010), Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC; Modgill, Patten, Knaak, Kassam, & Szeto, 2014), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Form C (M-C SDS Form C; Reynolds, 1982) was administered at baseline (T1), a mid-semester assessment (T2), and post-intervention (T3) to 176 students. Post-intervention changes in stigma components (knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent) were mixed for all groups. Knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent did not predict whether students screened for suicidal ideation (p > .05). Findings from the present study support past research indicating that the stigma can be improved with appropriate intervention. Findings also support interprofessional training as an appropriate context for anti-stigma interventions. Currently, there is no general consensus regarding the best method and combination of tools to measure stigma among healthcare students. Additionally, the relationship between stigma and screening for suicidal ideation is an important area for further scientific inquiry.

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The mental health (MH) of health workers during the 2019 pandemic has been severely affected by the disruptive coping and heavy workload management of the Covid crisis. Critical emergency contexts trigger many MH issues and disorders in many health workers who do not have adequate tools and strategies to respond to MH threats when traditional medical methods cannot be provided. Given the successful recovery outcomes obtained against physical illness disorders through physical illness representations, this project was carried out to search for effective discursive strategies within visual representations applied to MH issues. Exploring improved MH representation techniques could lead to finding strategies for informing about the stigma and triggering self-therapy, self-recovery and self-regulation coping mechanisms in health workers against MH threats. This study used discourse analysis to explore four representative YouTube videos portraying health workers and MH issues. The findings show that visual representations, including audiovisual and prosodic elements, rhetoric and storytelling techniques, impact people's psychological and behavioural processes. Once medically tested, these resources could support health professionals and institutions as an extension of the existing scientific methods, treatment and tools dealing with MH issues. E-mental health and digital technologies, which use media representation, could represent the first step to trigger a much more extensive study and scientific debate on the complementary strategy of media representation for MH acknowledgement, therapy and recovery. Nevertheless, additional and more quantitative interlinked medical and media studies on MH issues and representation have to be carried out. Therefore, the need to investigate highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between media and communication, traditional medical therapy research and the participation of all the actors involved.

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