Using Skills, Not Pills

Abstract

Mental health illiteracy in primary care is a growing concern for policymakers. Given the generalist nature of the primary health care practice, these physicians may lack the specialized knowledge and the time to identify and treat mental illnesses appropriately. Mental health literacy interventions are either contact-based, intensive social-contact-based, or skills-based. Although contact-based and intensive social-contact interventions have shown positive improvements in reducing stigma in the short-term, their efficacy for clinical behavioural change is questionable. This paper argues that skills-based interventions are more appropriate mental health literacy interventions for health care settings, using three Canadian case studies to highlight their potential to foster positive improvements to physician confidence and competence when treating mental illness. These interventions require more research with larger sample sizes to determine their efficacies for wide-scale implementation across jurisdictional boundaries and health specializations.