An awareness program: the significance of lectures delivered by individuals with mental disabilities

Abstract

Individuals with mental disabilities often face difficulties adjusting within a community due to the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness. To tackle this stigma and discrimination, we developed a new program involving lectures delivered by people with mental disabilities to health professionals, student health professionals, and community members. In this program, 10 lecturers provided 20 lectures to a total audience of 844 over a two year period. The individuals’ lectures were supported by an occupational therapist. Following each lecture, we investigated the possible change in the impressions of the audience and the lecturers toward mental illness. The program was found to effect general improvement in the impressions of most of the audience toward mental illness and people with mental disabilities. The positive emotional changes were especially significant. For lecturers, there was no change in general self-efficacy and self-stigma, but there was improvement in understanding the symptoms of mental illness. Therefore, one can conclude that the program was effective with respect to the audience and individuals with mental disabilities.