Journal of Psychiatry

Psychoeducational intervention to promote adolescent's mental health literacy on anxiety in a school context

Annual World Congress on Psychiatry

November 29, 2021 | Webinar

Tania M Morgado

CHUC, Portugal

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

The COVID 19 pandemic had implications for many dimensions of population health, including the mental health of people throughout the life cycle. In adolescents, several articles report the effects of the pandemic on their mental health, with approximately 38% of children and adolescents experiencing anxiety in the studies found in the systematic review carried out by Octavius et al. (2020). Some qualitative and quantitative studies carried out in Portugal also report this reality. Psychoeducational interventions to promote mental health literacy (MHL) on anxiety in adolescents are needed. This study aimed to test the primary outcome of a future full-scale trial: improvement of adolescents’ anxiety MHL components on recognition, prevention strategies, and self-help strategies. A sample of 38 adolescents, 24 (63.2%) females and 14 (36.8%) males, with an average age of 14.50 years (SD = 0.89) participated in this study. Each class was allocated to the intervention group (IG, n = 21) or the waiting list control group (WLCG, n = 17) with single-blinded randomization. MHL was assessed using the QuALiSMental (Loureiro, 2015). The ProLiSMental psychoeducational intervention consists of four or eight weekly sessions of 90 or 45 min for adolescents, using different active pedagogical methods and techniques. There also are initial and final sessions with adolescents, legal guardians, and teachers. There was a significant improvement with a small to relatively strong effect size in many dimensions of anxiety MHL components. This study suggests the progression to the full-scale trial and values the important role of mental health and psychiatric nurses in the adolescents’ empowerment for MHL in schools.

Biography :

Registered Nurse at the Pediatric Hospital of the Coimbra University and Hospital Center and Invited Assistant Professor at the Nursing School of Coimbra, Portugal. Mental health and psychiatric specialist nurse. Master in Bioethics. Ph.D. student in Nursing at Nursing School/University of Lisbon. Researcher in the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing (UICISA: E), Coimbra, Portugal and the Center for Health Technology and Services Research/NursID: Innovation & Development in Nursing (CINTESIS/NursID), Oporto, Portugal.