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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Steven N. Adelsheim, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, MSC09 5030, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, 505-272-0770, sadelsheim@salud.unm.edu

New Mexico ranks fifth nationally for teen suicide and one in five young people in New Mexico are affected by a mental health problem. The stigma of mental health issues is a major barrier to access to care throughout New Mexico, particularly in rural/frontier settings. The Not In My Family project brought together teens from throughout New Mexico, family members, media specialists and mental health providers in a community-based effort to alleviate the stigma of mental health issues for New Mexican youth and families. The culmination of this community intervention, a locally-produced half-hour documentary about mental health stigma reached approximately 1,150,000 unique New Mexico audience members, including newspaper and radio coverage, youth developed camera and cell phone video components, and a live post-production with youth input via cell phone text messaging and video peer interviews. Funded by a private/public state partnership, the Not In My Family project allowed Native American, Hispanic and Anglo youth and families to describe their experiences with mental health issues and the stigma they faced in getting treatment. This presentation, which demonstrates effective collaboration, community mobilization, and health communication, includes viewing the Not In My Family production followed by a presentation on the process of developing a statewide awareness process, including high school involvement, media buy-in, public-private partnerships and the benefits of state-wide collaborative efforts with youth in public health campaigns around mental health issues.

Learning Objectives: