P-1012 - Mental health literacy: keyword for health promotion and prevention of mental disorders. A study in a portuguese sample of young and adolescents

Abstract

Mental health literacy is an emergent research area in the fields of health promotion and mental illness prevention in communitarian environment, considered one relevant variable in the professional help-seeking behavior. Evaluate the mental health literacy of Portuguese adolescents and youth concerning depression and schizophrenia; - Identify the contribute of the social demographic variables in mental health literacy. Characterize the mental health literacy of adolescents and youth with the aim of create health promotion and mental illness prevention programs. Descriptive-correlational study. Sample of 671 students, randomly selected of Portuguese schools. 294 of male gender and 323 of female gender, with an average age of 15,20 (sd = 1,84 years). The data were collected with the Mental Health Literacy Evaluate Questionnaire (Loureiro, Pedreiro and Correia, 2011). The data were analyzed using the IBM-SPSS 20. Only 47,81% correctly identifies depression and 22,04% schizophrenia. Besides gender (p = 0,002), the familiarity with the mental illness and the socio demographic variables weren?t related to the recognition of the disorders. The low levels of mental health literacy are a problem and a challenge, since they are associated with prejudiced and stigmatizing visions of the diseases and the ill with implications in the professional help-seeking behavior. The planning of programs should be alert since the adolescents and youth are the group with less interaction with the health system.