EFFECT OF A MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING PROGRAMME ON THE MENTAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND INTENDED HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN KOGI STATE POLYTECHNIC

Abstract

Introduction Despite the high prevalence of mental illness among young people, several studies report that the knowledge of mental illness is generally low among the general population and young people rarely seek help for emotional problems. Poor knowledge of mental illness accounts for stigmatisation and low usage of mental health services. The adolescent period is an opportune time where knowledge of mental illness can be impacted, negative attitudes changed and help-seeking behaviour for emotional problems was promoted. This present study evaluated the effect of a mental health training programme on the mental health knowledge, attitude and intended help-seeking behaviour among young people in Kogi State Polytechnic, Nigeria Methodology The study utilised a quasi-experimental design with an intervention and a control group and used a pre and post-test design. Two of the campuses of Kogi state Polytechnic located about 50 kilometres apart from each other were allocated into the control and intervention arm respectively. A total of 90 college students were recruited by simple random sampling for the study, 45 students per group. At baseline, both groups completed the Socio-demographic section of the School Health Questionnaire (SHQ), Knowledge, Attitude and Social distance Questionnaire (KASD) and the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ). The intervention group received a 5-hour training programme on mental health spread over 3 days. The intervention included the use of multiple teaching methods, such as lectures, video, question and answer, drama and group discussion sessions. At immediate Post-test, the intervention group first completed the KASD and GHSQ questionnaires, the control group did same after 2 hours. The Student Evaluation Form was filled by the intervention group alone. Data analysis was done by the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 based on the different variables. Qualitative variables were presented as percentages while continuous variables were presented with means and standard deviations. Cross tabulations and Chi-square were used to explore the relationship between categorical variables. The impact of the intervention was determined as follow; Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics and scores on outcome measures (Scales) at baseline, was done using independent sample t-tests, correlations for continuous measures and Chi-square for categorical variables. Comparison of baseline and post-test scores on outcome measures among the intervention group, paired sample t-tests was used. To compare baseline and post-test scores on the outcome measures among the control group, paired sample t-test was used. To compare the post-test scores of the intervention group with the post-test scores of the control group on knowledge of the mental illness, attitudes towards persons with mental illness, and intended help-seeking behaviour, an independent sample t-test was used. The treatment effect was determined by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) using post-test scores on outcome variables while controlling for the baseline scores. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05, two-tailed and 95% confidence interval. Results The mean age of the respondents was 21.05 (SD ± 2.17) years with an age range of 18-24 years, The majority were males (84.4%) and Christians (68.9%). There were no significant differences between the sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants in the control and intervention groups. However, there was a significant positive change in participants knowledge of mental health at immediate post-test, mean knowledge score (baseline - 20.5, SD - 3.1, immediate post-test - 22.6, SD - 4.1, p = 0.001). Similarly, there was a significant change in respondents’ intended help-seeking intervention, mean General Help-Seeking score (baseline - 8.2, SD - 6.2. immediate post-test - 12.8, SD -5.6 p = 0.001) compared to baseline. However, there was no significant change in the mean attitudes and social distance scores at the immediate post-test. The effect size of the intervention on knowledge (Cohen’s d = 0.75) and intended help-seeking behaviour for emotional problems (Cohen’s d = 0.77) was moderate. The evaluation of the programme by the participants showed that the training was useful to them. However, they learnt most from lectures (48.9%), followed by group discussion (28.8%), video (20.0%) and least from question and answer (2.2%). Conclusions The present study shows that the use of multiple teaching methods and multiple training sessions can change young people’s knowledge of mental illness and intended help-seeking behaviour for emotional problems. The intervention did not have any effect on negative attitudes and social distance towards persons with mental illness. This suggests that there is a need for other methods besides education to combat negative attitudes and social distance. This may include contact with persons living with a mental illness and more accurate portrayal through the media.