Educating young people about mental health and mental illness : evaluating a school-based programme

Reducing the stigma of mental illness, increasing knowledge about mental health and improving help-seeking for mental health problems are essential areas of change targeted by mental health promotion interventions. A school-based programme aimed specifically at these areas is the Mental Illness Education programme, where people who have experience of mental illness give an interactive presentation to high school class groups. This article reports an evaluation of the Mental Illness Education programme (MIE) as implemented in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Using a case control design, 457 high school students were tested by self-report questionnaire before and after participation in the MIE-ACT programme. The results showed that the programme had a strong impact on increasing knowledge and a moderate impact on reducing stigma, but a weak impact on changing help-seeking intentions. Overall, the evaluation of the programme was positive, although areas of continuing challenge are identified.