Mental health literacy

Mental health literacy has been defined as “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention. Mental health literacy includes the ability to recognize specific disorders; knowing how to seek mental health information; knowledge of risk factors and causes, of self-treatments, and of professional help available; and attitudes that promote recognition and appropriate help-seeking.”

Mental health literacy of the public
Because of the high prevalence of mental disorders over the lifetime, it has been argued that everyone will either develop one of these disorders themselves or have close contact with someone else who does. Consequently, members of the public need to have some knowledge to allow them to recognize, prevent and seek early help for mental disorders. They also need to have the skills to support other people in their social network who develop a mental disorder.

Surveys of the public have been carried out in a number of countries to investigate mental health literacy. These surveys show that recognition of mental disorders is lacking and reveal negative beliefs about some standard psychiatric treatments, particularly medications. On the other hand, psychological, complementary and self-help methods are viewed much more positively. Negative attitudes towards people with mental disorders have been found, such as viewing them as having a weak character. These beliefs and attitudes are potential barriers to seeking optimal professional help and being supportive of others.

Approaches to improving mental health literacy
A number of approaches have been tried to improve mental health literacy, many of which have evidence of effectiveness. These include:

1. Whole of community campaigns. Examples are beyondblue and the Compass Strategy in Australia, the Defeat Depression Campaign in the United Kingdom, and the Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression in Germany.

2. School-based interventions. These include MindMatters and Mental Illness Education in Australia.

3. Individual training programs. These include mental health first aid training and training in suicide prevention skills.

4. Websites and books aimed at the public. There is evidence that both websites and books can improve mental health literacy. However, the quality of information on websites can sometimes be low.