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. 2017 Nov;211(5):316-322.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.116.195867. Epub 2017 Sep 21.

Relationships between anti-stigma programme awareness, disclosure comfort and intended help-seeking regarding a mental health problem

Claire Henderson  1 , Emily Robinson  2 , Sara Evans-Lacko  2 , Graham Thornicroft  2
Affiliations

Relationships between anti-stigma programme awareness, disclosure comfort and intended help-seeking regarding a mental health problem

Claire Henderson et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

BackgroundAnti-stigma programmes should aim to increase disclosure to those who can support someone with a mental health problem and appropriate professional help-seeking.AimsWe investigated associations among public awareness of England's Time to Change anti-stigma campaign and: (a) comfort envisaged in disclosing a mental health problem to family and friends; (b) comfort in disclosing to an employer; and (c) intended professional help-seeking from a general practitioner, i.e. a physician working in primary care.MethodUsing data from a survey of a nationally representative sample of adults, we created separate logistic regression models to test for campaign awareness and other variables as predictors of comfort in disclosure and intended help-seeking.ResultsWe found positive relationships between campaign awareness and comfort in disclosing to family and friends (odds ratio (OR) = 1.27, 95% CI 1.14-1.43) and to a current or prospective employer (OR=1.20, 95% CI 1.06-1.35); and likelihood of help-seeking (OR=1.18 95% CI 1.03-1.36).ConclusionsAwareness of an anti-stigma campaign was associated with greater comfort in disclosing a mental health problem and intended help-seeking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interestS.E.-L. and C.H. have received consulting fees from Lundbeck. S.E.-L. currently holds a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. G.T. has received grants for stigma-related research in the past 5 years from the National Institute for Health Research, and has acted as a consultant to the UK Office of the Chief Scientist.

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