The mental health literacy of the public is often assessed in terms of how closely public knowledge and beliefs mirror professional knowledge and beliefs. Footnote 50 From this perspective, changing public thinking to correspond with professional thinking about mental disorders may reduce stigma and lead to improvements in help seeking and treatment outcomes. Footnote 51 This approach does appear to have resulted in some improvements to mental health literacy; however, it is not without limitations and risks.
While people have become more accepting of common mental health disorders, this may be because they have come to view them as normal problems of living rather than as medical illnesses. Footnote 52 Having a medical understanding of mental disorders increases stigma and social distance, and reduces optimism about treatment outcomes, perhaps because the disorder is viewed as fixed and chronic. Footnote 53
For the most part, laypeople resist medical explanations and treatments for common mental health problems and prefer psychosocial, lifestyle and self-help interventions. Footnote 54 Some of these beliefs and preferences are supported by research evidence and do not necessarily connote poorer mental health literacy Footnote 55 In addition, mental health professionals often differ among themselves with regard to opinions about interventions, Footnote 56 and some of the interventions preferred by laypeople are evidence-based. Footnote 57 Lay concerns about disclosing mental health problems for fear of stigma and discrimination also have validity. Footnote 58
Widening the lens through which people view mental health literacy to include diverse perspectives and multiple determinants of mental health and mental illness could be the basis for an expanded model, similar to the model for health literacy. Footnote 59
Within a comprehensive model of mental health literacy, strategies would aim to enhance functional literacy, communicative literacy, and critical literacy. Enhancing interactive mental health literacy focuses on building personal skill and knowledge, and is expected to result in an increased personal capacity to act on knowledge. Footnote 60 Critical mental health literacy involves the development of skills to critically analyze and use information to mobilize for social and political action, as well as individual action. Footnote 61
Return to note 50 Jorm et al, 2006a; Jorm et al, 2006b
Return to note 51 Jorm et al, 2006a
Return to note 52 Phelan et al, 2000; Prior et al, 2003
Return to note 53 Read and Law, 1999; Martin et al, 2000; Walker and Read, 2002; Lauber et al 2004; Phelan et al, 2006
Return to note 54 Jorm, 1997b; Link et al, 1999; Pescosolido et al, 1999; Phelan et al, 2000; Jorm, 2000; Prior et al, 2003; Mann and Himelein, 2004; Phelan et al, 2006
Return to note 55 Read and Law, 1999; Stephens et al, 2000; Harris, 2001; Beatson and Taryan, 2003
Return to note 56 Tiemeier et al, 2002
Return to note 57 Jorm, 2000; Jorm et al, 2002; Jorm et al, 2004
Return to note 58 Jorm et al, 1999; Hugo, 2001; McNair et al, 2002 Gray, 2002; Mazeh et al, 2003
Return to note 59 Herman, 2000; WHO, 2001; Kickbush, 2002
Return to note 60 Nutbeam, 2000
Return to note 61 Nutbeam, 2000