Impact on help-seeking behaviours of a campaign perceived to decrease stigma and increase openness around mental health.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: There is considerable evidence that public stigma around mental illness inhibits help-seeking for mental health problems. Hence there have been many interventions and campaigns designed to reduce stigma around mental illness. However, as far as could be ascertained, none of these stigma reduction interventions has reported any substantial impact of reducing stigma on people's mental health help-seeking behaviours. The aim of this paper is to report on the impact of the Act-Belong-Commit positive mental health promotion Campaign on help-seeking via increasing perceived openness around mental health and reducing perceived stigma around mental illness. METHODS: State-wide computer assisted telephone interviews (CATIs) of the general adult population were undertaken in 2018 and 2019 (N = 600 adults per year). The questionnaire included measures of respondents' awareness of the Act-Belong-Commit Campaign, their beliefs about the Campaign's impact on mental illness stigma and openness around mental health issues, and whether they had sought help for or information about a mental health problem as a result of their exposure to the Campaign. RESULTS: Those who believed the Act-Belong-Commit Campaign increased openness around mental health issues were significantly more likely than those not holding this belief to have sought information about mental health and to have sought help for a mental health problem as a result of their exposure to the Campaign. Those who believed the Act-Belong-Commit Campaign decreased stigma around mental illness versus those not holding this belief were significantly more likely to have sought information, and more likely, but not significantly so, to have sought help as a result of their exposure to the Campaign. Overall, the effect was slightly greater for increased openness. CONCLUSION: As far as we are aware, these are the first reported findings of a positive impact on mental health help-seeking behaviours as a result of a population-wide mental health promotion Campaign being seen to have increased openness around mental health and decreased stigma around mental illness. SO WHAT?: These findings suggest that accompanying specific stigma reduction interventions with a broad-based, population-wide, positive mental health promotion Campaign such as the Act-Belong-Commit campaign, could amplify these interventions' impact on help-seeking by increasing openness about mental health issues.

Impact on stakeholders of a cultural adaptation of a social and emotional well-being intervention in an Aboriginal community.

PURPOSE: Australian Indigenous people conceptualise health broadly as situated within a social and emotional well-being (SEWB) framework. A consultation process with an Aboriginal community revealed that the fundamental principles of the population wide, community-based Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion Campaign were consistent with Aboriginal people's understanding of SEWB and that a cultural adaptation of the Campaign would be welcomed in the community. The purpose of this paper is to present key stakeholders' feedback on the Campaign adaptation. METHODOLOGY: Two years after implementation of the Campaign, individual in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of n = 18 Indigenous and non-Indigenous stakeholders to identify ongoing issues in the community and assess their reactions to the Campaign implementation and perceptions of the effects of the Campaign on the community. RESULTS: The two primary factors influencing stakeholder acceptance of the Campaign in the community were (i) the nature of the consultation process that clearly acknowledged that it was for the community to decide whether or not to adopt the Campaign and (ii) the ability of the Aboriginal Project Manager to gain the trust of the community, bring stakeholders together and illustrate the Act-Belong-Commit principles in her actions in the community. Stakeholders reported observing social and emotional well-being benefits for individuals, their families and the whole community. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results suggest that the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion Campaign can be successfully culturally adapted as a community-based, social and emotional well-being Campaign in Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities. SO WHAT?: The Act-Belong-Commit cultural adaptation in Roebourne provides an evidence-based best practice model for the development of culturally appropriate mental health promotion campaigns in Indigenous communities around Australia.

Impact on Students of the Act-Belong-Commit Mentally Healthy Schools Framework.

Schools can have a significant role in affecting the mental health and wellbeing of both students and staff, with considerable implications for society as a whole. Hence, there is a need for school-based interventions to both assist those experiencing mental health problems and to implement activities and policies that facilitate the enhancement and maintenance of good mental health. Unlike most school mental health interventions that are focussed on, and specific to, the school setting, the Act-Belong-Commit Mentally Healthy Schools Framework is based on the principles of the Act-Belong-Commit community-wide general population mental health promotion campaign, which has been adapted to the school setting via the World Health Organisation's Health Promoting Schools Framework. The Mentally Healthy Schools Framework is a whole-school approach to enhancing both student and staff mental health. This paper reports the findings of a preliminary impact survey administered to students after the adoption of the Framework in a number of primary and secondary schools in Western Australia. Students from two schools that had only recently adopted the Framework completed a "Baseline" questionnaire, and students from three schools that had been implementing the Framework for at least 17 months completed a "Follow-up" questionnaire. The results suggest that the Mentally Healthy Schools Framework, adapted from a community-wide campaign, can have a positive impact on students in terms of increasing openness about mental health, increasing awareness of behaviours conducive to good mental health, and increasing engagement in behaviours to improve their mental health. Such positive impacts have clear implications not only for prevention of mental disorders, but for academic achievement, employment, and overall contribution to society.

Impact of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign on mental health help-seeking behaviour.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Despite the high prevalence of mental ill-health amongst Australians, many people do not seek help for their mental ill-health. A delay in help-seeking is associated with poorer outcomes. This study investigated the extent to which the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign prompted people to seek information or professional help for mental ill-health. METHODS: A sample of 1200 respondents took part in two state-wide surveys (n = 600 each). Participants aware of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign were asked questions related to information-seeking and help-seeking behaviours because of the campaign. RESULTS: Of those aware of the campaign, 8% stated that the campaign prompted them to seek information and 4% stated that the campaign prompted them to seek help for a mental health problem. Those with a mental illness experience (MIE) were significantly more likely than those without to report that the campaign prompted them to look for information (12% vs 6%) and seek help for a mental health problem (9.5% vs 1.2%). Extrapolating these results to the total adult population of Western Australia indicated that around 120 000 adults had sought mental health information, and around 60 000 had sought help as a result of the campaign. CONCLUSIONS: The campaign not only initiated the seeking of information or professional help for a mental health problem amongst those with no prior thoughts of such, but also prompted those who were already thinking about seeking information or getting help to act sooner than they otherwise would. SO WHAT?: Although previous research suggests that mental health literacy interventions have limited impact on help-seeking, the presented data show that the Act-Belong-Commit approach can have a significant impact on help-seeking, particularly amongst those with a MIE, which could yield substantial social and economic return on investment benefits if intensified at both the media and community grass roots levels.

Twenty-One Reasons for Implementing the Act-Belong-Commit-'ABCs of Mental Health' Campaign.

While there has been increased attention worldwide on mental health promotion over the past two decades, what is lacking in many countries around the globe is practical knowledge of what constitutes a population-wide mental health promotion campaign, and how such a campaign can be implemented. This paper provides such knowledge based on the development, implementation and evaluation of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign, the world's first comprehensive population-wide public mental health promotion campaign which was launched in 2008 in Western Australia. Given the learnings from the full-scale implementation and evaluation of the campaign in Western Australia and its expansion nationally and internationally, along with the continuing and expanding evidence base for the campaign constructs, we crystallise 21 reasons why jurisdictions who wish to achieve the goals of the WHO and adopt the recommendations of the European framework on mental health and wellbeing should consider adopting or adapting Act-Belong-Commit when considering implementing a public mental health promotion campaign.

Vulnerable learners in the age of COVID-19: A scoping review.

This scoping review provides an overview of COVID-19 approaches to managing unanticipated school closures and available literature related to young people learning outside-of-school. A range of material has been drawn upon to highlight educational issues of this learning context, including psychosocial and emotional repercussions. Globally, while some countries opted for a mass school shut-down, many schools remained open for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This partial closure not only enabled learning in smaller targeted groups but also offered a safe sanctuary for those who needed a regulated and secure environment. In Australia, if full school closures were to be enforced over a long period, a significant proportion of students from more vulnerable backgrounds would likely experience persistent disadvantage through a range of barriers: long-term educational disengagement, digital exclusion, poor technology management, and increased psychosocial challenges. This scoping review combines research on technology availability and learning, with analysis of the long-term educational impacts of navigating the COVID-19 disruption.

The potential individual- and population-level benefits of encouraging drinkers to count their drinks.

INTRODUCTION: Cross-sectional studies have established a link between overall engagement in protective behavioral strategies (PBSs) and reduced alcohol consumption. However, there are mixed results on the effectiveness of individual PBSs, with some found to result in increased consumption. A recent study examining the effects of PBS use over time found the 'Count your drinks' strategy to be most reliably associated with reduced alcohol consumption among 16 strategies. Given the apparent superior efficacy of this PBS, this exploratory study aimed to extend these results by (i) determining the extent to which increasing the frequency of PBS enactment is associated with alcohol consumption over time and (ii) predicting potential changes in population-level consumption resulting from higher levels of PBS use. METHOD: 1250 drinkers aged 18-70 years provided data at two time points relating to their drinking practices. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to model the relationship between changes in frequency of enactment of the 'Count your drinks' PBS and alcohol consumption. Coefficients were used to predict average reductions in alcohol consumption over one year associated with increased frequency of use of this PBS. RESULTS: Larger increases in the frequency of using the 'Count your drinks' PBS were associated with greater reductions in alcohol consumption. Exploratory extrapolation analyses demonstrated the potential for substantial reductions in overall alcohol consumption. CONCLUSION: The results suggest health promotion efforts designed to increase the frequency with which drinkers count their drinks could produce substantial annual decreases in alcohol consumption at both individual and population levels.