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      A school mental health literacy curriculum resource training approach: effects on Tanzanian teachers’ mental health knowledge, stigma and help-seeking efficacy

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          Abstract

          Background

          Mental health literacy (MHL) is foundational for mental health promotion, prevention, stigma reduction, and care; School supported information pertaining to MHL in sub-Saharan Africa is extremely limited, including in Tanzania. Successful application of a school MHL curriculum resource may be an effective way to increase teacher MHL and therefore help to improve mental health outcomes for students.

          Methods

          Secondary school teachers in Tanzania were trained on the African Guide (AG) a school MHL curriculum resource culturally adapted from a Canadian MHL resource ( The Guide) for use in Africa. Teacher training workshops on the classroom application of the AG were used to evaluate its impact on mental health literacy in a sample of Tanzanian Secondary school teachers. Pre-post training assessment of participant knowledge and attitudes was conducted. Help-seeking efficacy for teachers themselves and their interventions for students, friends, family members and peers were determined.

          Results

          Paired t test (n = 37) results demonstrate highly significant improvements in teacher’s overall knowledge ( p < 0.001; d = 1.14), including mental health knowledge, ( p < 0.001; d = 1.14) and curriculum specific knowledge ( p < 0.01; d = 0.63). Teachers’ stigma against mental illness decreased significantly following the training ( p < 0.001; d = 0.61). Independent t tests comparing the paired sample against unpaired sample also demonstrated significant differences between the groups for teacher’s overall knowledge ( p < 0.001). Teachers also reported high rates (greater than ¾ of the sample) of positive help-seeking efficacy for themselves as well as for their students, friends, family members and peers. As a result of the training, the number of students teachers identified for potential mental health care totaled over 200.

          Conclusions

          These positive results, when taken together with other research, suggest that the use of a classroom-based resource (the AG) that integrates MHL into existing school curriculum through training teachers may be an effective and sustainable way to increase the MHL (improved knowledge, decreased stigma and positive help-seeking efficacy) of teachers in Tanzania. As this study replicated the results of a previous intervention in Malawi, consideration could be given to scaling up this intervention in both countries and applying this resource and approach in other countries in East Africa.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13033-016-0082-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Most cited references22

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          The world health report 2001 - Mental health: new understanding, new hope

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            Mental Health Literacy: Past, Present, and Future.

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              Mental health literacy in secondary schools: a Canadian approach.

              "Mental health literacy is an integral component of health literacy and has been gaining increasing attention as an important focus globally for mental health interventions. In Canada, youth mental health is increasingly recognized as a key national health concern and has received more focused attention than ever before within our health system. This article outlines 2 unique homegrown initiatives to address youth mental health literacy within Canadian secondary schools."
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                stanley.kutcher@iwk.nshealth.ca
                yifeng.wei@iwk.nshealth.ca
                hgilberds@farmradio.org
                oubuguyu@yahoo.com
                tasiana2009@live.com
                adena.brown@iwk.nshealth.ca
                drnormansabuni@yahoo.com
                magimbaayoub@yahoo.com
                kperkins@farmradio.org
                Journal
                Int J Ment Health Syst
                Int J Ment Health Syst
                International Journal of Mental Health Systems
                BioMed Central (London )
                1752-4458
                4 August 2016
                4 August 2016
                2016
                : 10
                : 50
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Dalhousie University and the Izaak Walton Killam (IWK) Health Centre, 5850 University Avenue, PO Box 9700, Halifax, NS B3K 6R8 Canada
                [2 ]Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health team, Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Canada
                [3 ]Farm Radio International, Ottawa, Canada
                [4 ]Muhimbili National Hospital, Kalenga Street, PO Box 65000, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
                [5 ]Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, PO Box 65001, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
                [6 ]Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health team, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Canada
                [7 ]Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Ministry of Health, PO Box 9083, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
                [8 ]Non Communicable Disease, Ministry of Health, PO Box 9083, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
                Article
                82
                10.1186/s13033-016-0082-6
                4973111
                27493684
                f2d0f786-6710-40ad-893b-75e29dac9575
                © The Author(s) 2016

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 18 April 2016
                : 19 July 2016
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2016

                Neurology
                mental health literacy,school-based intervention,knowledge,stigma,tanzania,adolescents,teachers,mental health,africa

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