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

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.