Resource/Manuscript: “Healthy Young Minds: The Effects of a 1-hour Classroom Workshop on Mental Illness Stigma in High School Students”
DOI 10.1007/s10597-014-9763-2

Developer: Healthy Young Minds

Healthy Young Minds

1-hour Anti Stigma Classroom Workshop

The ‘Healthy Young Minds’ anti-stigma workshop was a single-instance school-based workshop developed by Ke. et al, and was delivered by two medical students to youth ages 14-17 in grades 9 and 10 in Vancouver and Surrey, British Columbia. The authors developed this program to address limitations of previous anti-stigma studies, ultimately seeking to streamline the process for designing and implementing school-based mental health programs while studying outcomes related to stigma. In-classroom implementation included video-contact with recovering patients, games, quizzes, and multimedia. At this time, the details of ‘Healthy Young Minds’ are only available in the academic literature. This webpage will reflect updates on the effectiveness and availability of ‘Healthy Young Minds’ as they emerge.

Key Findings

The ‘Healthy Young Minds’ program receives a rating of 4 for inconclusive evidence. This outcome is primarily a result of the nature of pilot studies that may present promising results, but require further validation by independent scholars.

This program was tested within a pilot study, meaning further research is required to substantiate the effectiveness of this program, and its readiness to be utilized by related stakeholders and the general public.

This intervention has been shown to have non-significant positive effects on the following key-pillars of Mental Health Literacy:

  • Knowledge
  • Help Seeking
  • Stigma
  • Obtaining & Maintaining Positive Mental Health
  • Recognition of Mental Disorders

Knowledge, Help Seeking, Obtaining & Maintaining Positive Mental Health, and Recognition of Mental Disorders, were not quantitatively measured in the relevant literature. Thus we have no insight into this program’s efficacy with respect to these key pillars.

The program produced statistically significant reductions in overall stigma during and following the pilot study. In this context, stigma was measured by evaluating students’ endorsement of harmful stereotypes and desire for social distance between themselves and someone with mental illness’. It is important to note that stigma reduction was primarily attributable to favorable change in students’ desire for social distance, but there was no detectable change in students’ endorsement of negative stereotypes following the program.

At this time, there are no long-term studies (up to, or beyond one year) evaluating the Healthy Young Minds’ Program. It is unknown whether positive impacts will sustain beyond one month - the longest evaluation trial of the program within the academic literature.

This program was developed by researchers to test a hypothesis, and has not been made into a consumable or accessible resource for the public or related stakeholders. However, the design and implementation strategy are available within the academic article, under the link ‘Resource/Manuscript’.

Healthy Young Minds - Classroom Workshop Rating: 4

(Ratings of 4-6 are not scored for dissemination readiness)

evalutation rating guide 4

For more information on our scoring system, criteria, and outcomes for the Healthy Young Minds classroom workshop, please see the Evaluation Process & Scoring page