Mental health literacy: A Survey of the Public’s Ability to Recognize Mental Disorders and Their Knowledge about the Effectiveness of Helpful Interventions to Help the Victims

"Background- Although Mental health literacy (MHL) among public has been widely studied in many countries, there are few studies on MHL in Srilanka. MHL is important as it is closely related to help seeking behavior and mental health outcomes. Poor MHL has been a major barrier on improving mental health care in Sri Lanka. The objective of this study was to describe MHL in terms of ability to recognize mental health problems, knowledge of helpful interventions and professional help available. The association between socioeconomic variables and MHL was also identified. Methods- This descriptive cross-sectional study used a pretested questionnaire on 430 people aged between 18-60, where MHL was assessed using four case vignettes. The vignettes represented depression with suicidal ideation, social phobia, schizophrenia, and dementia. Results- The response rates for recognition as a mental health problem was 83.7% (n=297) for the depression vignette, 80.8% (n=287) for schizophrenia vignette, 56.6% (n= 201) for dementia vignette and 54.4% (n= 193) for social phobia vignette. Satisfactory levels for the ability to recognize professional services were 44.5% (n= 158) for both depression and schizophrenia vignettes and 37.7% (n= 134) for dementia and social phobia vignettes. Satisfactory levels in recognizing helpful interventions were 43.4% (n= 154) for social phobia vignette, 27.9% (n= 99) for schizophrenia vignette, 21.1% (n= 75) for dementia vignette and 20.3% (n= 72) for depression vignette. A statistically significant association was found among the educational level and the ability to recognize mental health problems, the ability to recognize professional services and knowledge of helpful interventions. Conclusion- Though the majority was able to recognize the mental disorders as mental health problems, their knowledge of professional services and helpful interventions were relatively very low. Therefore, the MHL of the target population is inadequate comparing to the most of western countries. There is an urgent need for mental health education initiatives to improve MHL among the public considering their socioeconomic background in Sri Lanka. "