Mental Health Campaigns - Research Paper Example

?Mental Health Campaigns Affiliation with more information about affiliation, research grants, conflict of interest and how to contact Mental Health Campaigns How to examine stigma surrounding mental health and how entertainment-education may be utilized in to public health campaigns. Mental health, according to W.H.O, is "a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community" (Mental Health, 2011). W.H.O also emphasizes the fact that mental health "is not just the absence of mental disorder”. Mental health denotes the cognitive or emotional well-being and the behavioral and thinking processes of people. Mental health is pivotal for an individual as it can affect the way a person think, feel and behave in any situation and can also negatively impact the quality of living, relationships and physical well-being of an individual. It is estimated that about 20-25% of the population of every nation in the world suffer from a Mental or a neuropsychiatric disorder during their lifetime (Klin & Lemish, 2008, p. 2). Though a number of psychological health awareness initiatives and educational programs have attempted to improve mental health literacy among the public with the aim of improving recognition and help seeking and reducing stigma, only 20–35% of those people identified with mental disorder seek professional assistance (Klin & Lemish, 2008, p. 2). Mental Health Literacy refers to "the ability to gain or access to, understand, and use information in ways which promote and maintain good mental health" (Chang, 2008, p. 1). Low mental health literacy of the people can accentuate the distorted health beliefs of the public that hinders the willingness of people identified with mental disorders from recognizing their symptoms and seeking professional help. The health beliefs of the public act as one of the main barriers to treatment participation or access to care. The stigma since is a social element that shape up the health beliefs of the public, can, therefore, prevent people from pursuing mental health services as they do not want to get labeled as "mental patient". The health beliefs of the public, formulated by the stigma, therefore, needs to be accurate and public health campaigns become essential to improve the mental health literacy of the public. This paper focuses on the stigmatization of mental health disorders and the analysis of the efficacy of entertainment-education utilized in public health campaigns. Stigmatization is “the process wherein one condition or aspect of an individual is attributionally linked to some pervasive dimension of the target person's identity” (Byrne, 2011). Stigma is a 'buzz word' and it is a mark of disgrace or discredit that sets a person aside from others and this negative aspect of an individual give a deviant identity to that person (Byrne, 2011). When marked as 'mentally ill', a psychiatric patient is objected to internal consequences such as secrecy, lower self-esteem and shame as well as the external consequences of social exclusion, prejudice and discrimination. The people identified with psychological disabilities are marginalized not only from the society but also from the development aid and government attention. Moreover, this group of people is vulnerable to the public stigmatization wherein they are imposed with the distorted images of violence, sin and laziness. Though there are modern methods of treatment for mental illness, the public believe that long-term hospital care is the only solution to mental illness. (Mental Health: Advocacy, 2011). In order to examine stigma associated with mental health, a measuring of public opinion about mental disorders becomes necessary as it can identify the levels of awareness, belief systems, fears and stereotypes related to mental disorders. But measuring public opinion, by focus groups or surveys, fails to identify the antipathy of the public, who are disinterested and unaffected by the mental orders and hence choose to refuse a survey. Those who are interested to participate generally have a tendency to provide socially desirable responses and this can affect the impact of the survey. Hence, the stigma associated with mental health and efficacy of treatment needs to be reduced through public health campaigns. The most common mental health disorder that has been identified in the United States is the depression that affects 9.5% of Americans a year. But depression is not accepted nor recognized as a mental disorder by the public. Depression is a mental disorder that works as a trigger for suicide. Since the people suffering from major depression have a 3% to 4% lifetime risk of suicide, this condition requires professional help and treatment. (Chang, 2008, p. 1). In a survey conducted by the Tung Foundation (2003) during November 2002 and June 2003, it was found that 11.7% of the population suffered from depression. This survey also revealed the public beliefs according to which 52.5% of the population was able to identify the condition, 68.2% believed that the depression will go by itself and 31.2% believed that depression will be cured without a course of antidepressant treatment. The survey on the misconceptions associated with depression among the people of Taiwan reported that 18.9% believed that depression was caused by unknown powers and 13.3% believed that it is caused by evil spirits. Only 7.6% of the respondents thought of seeking medical help, if they felt depressed. Among those who were identified with depression, 7.6% sought relief through religion and 49.3% turned to traditional Chinese medicine that included medicinal techniques such as acupuncture, breathing techniques and massage. (Chang, 2008, p. 39). Another study revealed that students are one of the vulnerable groups to the risk of depression which is triggered in them by the increasing pressure to put on school performance and also by the failure to achieve the goals that are set by the students themselves. Moreover, it was also found that among the Taiwanese who committed suicide, 90% suffered from depression. (Chang, 2008). For the current study, Entertainment-Education Strategy is used that can identify as well as combat the stigma associated with the mental disorders and the efficacy of its treatment. For the promotion of mental health literacy, application of a communication strategy is also required, which can identify and counter-act the stigma associated with mental health. Several Depression campaigns were conducted by various health organizations and pharmaceutical companies to promote the mental illness (depression) literacy. Some of these studies adopted a marketing approach in these campaigns and reported significant developments and trends in the field. The implementation of marketing principles in health campaigns include the "generating more precise definitions of various clients’ needs, an increased ability to identify opportunities for servicing specific population segments, and the allocation of resources toward programs that are known to be relevant to the concerns of a community" (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 676). In these mental health initiatives, which employed marketing principles, the respondents were able to "express preferences toward, or be at greater comfort with, more structured mental health options than with therapy conducted in a group (particularly if it includes an emotional focus)." Also, there was an "increase in the value and a decrease in the stigma attached to career counseling" (Rochlen & Hoyer, 2005, p. 677). Another major trend in the health initiatives is the employ of interactive media technologies for health communication. The best possible strategy to promote the mental illness (depression) literacy through traditional media was to embed them in to story lines and develop them using behavior change theories so that it can influence the public beliefs about mental disorder. Such story lines will also help to combat the stigmas associated with the condition. For example, House was a popular program that featured a storyline on drug addiction and mental health. It was nominated for Prism award which is given away by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Association, in 2006 and 2007. This program also featured a National Alliance on Mental Illness PSA on stigma in 2009 and discussed how friends can help in recovery, at the end of the show. It also displayed a website and contact number in conjunction with the story. Entertainment-Education (E-E) is “theory-based strategy for purposefully embedding educational and social issues” in the creation and presentation of entertainment media products and related events, intended to increase audience members’ knowledge about a specific issue, creating favorable attitudes and promote behavior change” (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 7). Known also as enter-educate, edutainment or infotainment, entertainment-education is one of the most popular intervention strategies used by the public health organizations in the United States as well as around the world. Education entertainment addresses significant health issues to the public through soap operas, sitcoms, reality shows, etc. Several hundreds of health messages have been communicated to the general public though the traditional media. “Radio and television soap operas have been used to promote family planning, sexual responsibility and HIV/AIDS prevention. Folk media, theater and sporting events have been used to promote contraception. Music videos and folk music have been used to reach young people with sexual responsibility campaign messages. Films and videos have been used to reduce high-risk sexual practices. Websites and interactive video games have been used to promote healthy diets, reduce Diabetes and promote sexual responsibility" (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 3). The recent advancements in the field of communication technology has brought in significant changes in the communication environment that different forms of traditional communication are merged with the existing interactive communication to create a more effective communication and persuasion than traditional communication. (Kim & Stout, 2010, p. 152). Education entertainment strategy "involves incorporating an educational message into popular entertainment content in order to raise awareness, increase knowledge, create favorable attitudes, and ultimately motivate people to take socially responsible action in their own lives” (Entertainment Education and Health in the United States, 2004, p. 1). This health intervention strategy requires a careful integration of planning, research, production and evaluation that employs the application of a communication theory, in this research based on reducing of the stigma associated with the mental disorders and to improve mental health literacy. Education entertainment interventions can be effectively utilized for health campaigns through the medium of Internet. Today, "Internet-based communication possesses a unique capability of combining elements of interpersonal and mass communication [as it] can positively affect users’ information processing, involvement with communication, self-efficacy, attitudes toward the health issue, and other important intermediate factors of health outcomes" (Kim & Stout, 2010, p. 1). It can provide multimodal messages to mass audience as well as prompt, customized feedback to users’ individual queries. A Website need to be created for this purpose with Web 2.0 technologies and it needs to be developed, maintained and modified with open-source software. Since Internet and the social media sites like Face-book, Twitter, wikis, blogs, You Tube, Google +, etc. are used by most of the populations around the world and precisely about 20% of the U.S population, these can be effectively employed as the media to reach out to the public to address and to increase mental health (depression) awareness. These websites, in turn, are to be linked with the website created for depression campaign that will provide information about depression. Ethical approval to the content of the websites should be obtained from the prominent Mental Health Research Organizations. These websites linked to government sites, can also provide links to web pages on the studies related to depression, wherever appropriate. Moreover, these web pages should also offer contact information (e-mail & toll-free number), wherein the users can e-mail their queries or talk to the well-trained Community Health Workers. The users, while navigating through these social networking sites that are interconnected with hyperlinks, will come to the knowledge repository on depression and will develop a conceptual understanding of the condition, which, in turn, can reduce the stigmatization associated with it. The information on learning that can correct the stigmatizing of depression is essential for the users to foster a positive approach towards this campaign. The users' awareness of the concept as well as the information on depression can help them to evaluate the information favorably and to recognize their own symptoms, if there are any. With the proper background knowledge on depression, people will not hesitate to come forward and seek professional help. Challenges: We can expect the surfacing of numerous challenges while using the strategy of education entertainment through the medium of internet for health campaign. One of the foremost problems that need to be addressed is the management of multiple messages in multiple social networking sites. User engagement is essential in this media and users also need to be consistently encouraged to be engaged in the health campaign sites. The second most challenging problem is related to the stigma associated with depression. Many studies have been conducted on the stigmas and theories have also been formulated regarding the general and probable outcome of stigma. As per these stigma theories, individuals carrying the label “mentally ill” will be forever marked with this disability. The probability of such a question cannot be ruled off in this study also. Efficacy of Education Entertainment in Health Campaigns: Entertainment education, since its inception and practice in traditional media such as television channels, radio, etc., has had immense impacts on the behavior of the audience. It is the trends in the entertainment media that gave immense significance to entertainment education. The first trend was the widespread popularity of television and television networks all over the world. The global expansion of communication systems and technology is the second trend and the third trend is the severe competition between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting that blur the “lines between traditional educational media programs and entertainment programs” (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 7). Entertainment education through social networking sites, though will fail to ensure that everyone accessing these sites will go through the information on mental health (depression) awareness, will be accessed by those who does an unintentional reading. If the information about the necessity of good mental health is articulated though captivating graphic works, it can attract audience for the sheer quality of the presentation of the information. Though only a fraction of target audience is viewing this information, the knowledge of this mental health issue will be successful in creating knowledge in the mind of the user. Through the processes of exposure, perception and retention, the mental health (depression) campaign will gradually become effective in interpreting the education entertainment messages communicated through the social networking sites of the internet. Evaluation: The virtual places that propose interconnectedness and relationships, the social networking sites on the virtual world of Internet, will be chosen as the setting for the mental health (depression) campaign. These social networking sites will be provided with hyperlinks that will lead the user to the website created for the mental health (depression) campaign. When these social sites play the role of mental health campaign sites, it will need more cohesive metrics for the evaluation and application of research methodology. Though metric can be collected from many social networking sites, its evaluation does present a challenge as the existing tools are less useful in the collection of these quantitative data. Moreover, the fact that the metrics need to be collected from different social networking sites, calls for the collection of metric from individual sites and making of an integrated report. Though the evaluation of the campaign may not provide accurate measurement of success, it can provide an approximate value of the efficacy of the campaign. Though the metrics may fail to provide information on user's engagement with the information projected by the campaign, the campaign promoters can monitor the number of followers of the campaign in each of the social networking sites as well as the number of the messages posted around an activity or information. The mental health promoters can also monitor the click-through rates to the mental health promotion knowledge and study portals of the website from the various social networking sites. Conclusion: The promotion of mental health campaigns is essential to improve our perceptive and behavior towards those individuals who are identified with psychological disorders. These campaigns are also effective in reducing the stigma associated with the mental disorders that alienates the psychological patients from the main stream of life. This paper is a study on the mental health campaign and the efficacy in the utilization of education entertainment on the campaign is analyzed. This paper focuses on one of the major and the common mental disorders- depression. The stigma and the public beliefs associated with depression and its distressing effects on the individuals identified with depression have also been acknowledged. It is the social networking sites of the internet that has been taken as the setting of the campaign and the efficacy of the campaign is evaluate through quantitative approach. Though more research has to be done on the role of social networking sites on the scientific, social and interactive aspects of mental health campaigns, it does provides the opportunity to shape up a healthy mental behavior through its health and safety information. The depression literacy through the social networking site has the advantage of reaching out to a larger audience through the virtual world of internet and the virtual platforms of interconnectedness, the social networking sites. This exposure to the depression literacy can help in reducing the stigma associated with depression and will encourage those individuals identified with the disease to seek medical help, overcoming the fear of getting stigmatized. This campaign also will increase the awareness of depression among the masses and help them to identify the condition, if it exists in them, or to provide a helping hand to others who fear the stigmatization of the society with low mental health literacy. 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