141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

290143
Creating an effective school-based anti-stigma curriculum for adolescents

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 2:45 PM - 3:00 PM

Kay Barkin , Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County, Fort Worth, TX
Bruce Link, PhD , Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY
Jo C. Phelan, PhD , Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY
Camille Patterson, PhD , MHMR of Tarrant County, Fort Worth, TX
Melissa DuPont-Reyes, MPH , Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY
Kris Painter, PhD, LCSW , MHMR of Tarrant County, Forth Worth, TX
This session examines the development and implementation of an intervention designed to diminish mental illness stigma among 6th grade students. A curriculum for use in schools was developed as part of an award-winning anti-stigma public awareness campaign in Tarrant County, Texas. The curriculum consists of a PowerPoint presentation with a Teacher's Guide that provides slide-by-slide talking points. The anti-stigma campaign also includes posters, bookmarks, billboards, bus ads and street banners. In addition to the curriculum and Teacher's Guide, a video that explains the curriculum to teachers is provided. Since 2005, more than 160 teachers at 148 schools in Texas and approximately 1,000 teachers in New York State have presented the curriculum. Surveys of these teachers show the curriculum is helpful in their classrooms. While the usefulness of the curriculum was clear, there was no measurement of its effectiveness in changing attitudes and help-seeking behaviors. In the current research, as described in a companion paper, this promising curriculum is embedded in a rigorous experimental evaluation of its long- and short-term effectiveness. The study includes teachers who were assigned to the research project, resulting in a mix of enthusiastic and resistant presenters. Analysis of fidelity will reveal the impact of a teacher's personal attitudes on the effectiveness of the intervention. The curriculum is being evaluated in a “true-life” setting with no training other than training any teacher would receive through the Teacher's Guide and video.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe a promising approach to stigma reduction Describe the presentation of the anti-stigma curriculum to 6th grade students Discuss the development of tools to enhance fidelity to the curriculum

Keywords: Health Education, Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I wrote the curriculum that is currently under intensive evaluation and served as a consultant to developers of the study. As a social marketer for two systems of care grant communities, I have created three anti-stigma campaigns, two of which won state and national awards. My credentials include Accreditation in Public Relations by the Public Relations Society of America.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.