Outcome of a Knowledge Contact-based Anti-stigma Programme in Adolescents and Adults in the Chinese Population.

A lack of knowledge about mental health and stigma of the mentally ill are barriers to the treatment of mental disorders. To reduce these barriers, anti-stigma campaigns using a knowledge contact approach were launched to raise public mental health knowledge by education and to reduce stigma by encouraging contact with individuals with mental disorders. The current study attempted to investigate the outcome of a knowledge contact-based programme in adolescents and adults in the Hong Kong Chinese population. Matched background individuals served as controls. Results from the 149 adolescents and 98 adults who participated in our programme showed that they had superior mental health literacy to the control group. Although both adolescents and adults showed a positive outcome on most measures of stigma, the former showed positive outcome on more measures of stigma than the latter. Our results support the initiative of using a knowledge contact-based anti-stigma campaign in Chinese societies. The results of this study provide preliminary data that will help inform and guide future research and development of effective mental health awareness programmes specific to people of various age-groups in the Chinese community.