scholarly journals Understanding the Role of Social Media–Based Mental Health Support Among College Students: Survey and Semistructured Interviews (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piper Vornholt ◽  
Munmun De Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

BACKGROUND Mental illness is a growing concern within many college campuses. Limited access to therapy resources, along with the fear of stigma, often prevents students from seeking help. Introducing supportive interventions, coping strategies, and mitigation programs might decrease the negative effects of mental illness among college students. OBJECTIVE Many college students find social support for a variety of needs through social media platforms. With the pervasive adoption of social media sites in college populations, in this study, we examine whether and how these platforms may help meet college students’ mental health needs. METHODS We first conducted a survey among 101 students, followed by semistructured interviews (n=11), of a large public university in the southeast region of the United States to understand whether, to what extent, and how students appropriate social media platforms to suit their struggle with mental health concerns. The interviews were intended to provide comprehensive information on students’ attitudes and their perceived benefits and limitations of social media as platforms for mental health support. RESULTS Our survey revealed that a large number of participating students (71/101, 70.3%) had recently experienced some form of stress, anxiety, or other mental health challenges related to college life. Half of them (52/101, 51.5%) also reported having appropriated some social media platforms for self-disclosure or help, indicating the pervasiveness of this practice. Through our interviews, we obtained deeper insights into these initial observations. We identified specific academic, personal, and social life stressors; motivations behind social media use for mental health needs; and specific platform affordances that helped or hindered this use. CONCLUSIONS Students recognized the benefits of social media in helping connect with peers on campus and promoting informal and candid disclosures. However, they argued against complete anonymity in platforms for mental health help and advocated the need for privacy and boundary regulation mechanisms in social media platforms supporting this use. Our findings bear implications for informing campus counseling efforts and in designing social media–based mental health support tools for college students.

scholarly journals China’s mental health support in response to COVID-19: progression, challenges and reflection

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumeng Ju ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Xiaoping Wang ◽  
Weihui Li ◽  
Roger M. K. Ng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Support System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Proactive Measures

Abstract The continued spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a serious impact on everyone across the globe, both physically and psychologically. In addition to proactive measures addressing physical survival needs and health protection, China has launched a mental health support system to cope with the widespread psychological stress during the pandemic and its aftermath. In this debate, the authors attempted to depict and reflect upon the overall framework of China’s mental health support, with particular reference to the psychological intervention in response to COVID-19 over the last few months. Although a lot of effort has been made to meet the mental health needs, the accessibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the support system still have much room for improvement. Therefore, it is very important to re-think the predicament and challenge on ways of enhancing public mental health emergency responses in China. The concepts of universality, timeliness and scientific rigour were proposed as a possible reform in preparation for large-scale natural or man-made disasters in the coming future.

Mental health in subsidized housing: Readiness to assist residents with mental health issues in subsidized housing from the perspectives of housing employees

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110276
Author(s):  
Hyejin Jung ◽  
Jose Jaime ◽  
Sharon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Subsidized Housing ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Health Support ◽  
And Training

People in subsidized housing are likely to suffer from mental health issues. However, little is known about subsidized housing employees’ readiness to address the residents’ mental health needs. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of housing employees on their readiness to assist subsidized housing residents’ mental health needs. A total of 32 subsidized housing employees participated in five focus groups. Thematic analysis revealed four key themes: prevalence of mental health issues, unexpected role as housing employees, multi-level barriers in assisting residents with mental health needs, and the need for mental health support in subsidized housing. Findings highlight the need for integrated care, including social work services in subsidized housing. Social workers may have various potential roles to serve the mental health needs of subsidized housing residents. Also identified was the need for mental health education and training among subsidized housing employees.

The men’s wellbeing project: promoting the well-being and mental health of men

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Gabriel Abotsie ◽  
Roger Kingerlee ◽  
Andrew Fisk ◽  
Sam Watts ◽  
Rachel Cooke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

Purpose Comparatively, men have poorer physical and mental health outcomes than women, with a significantly higher suicide rate. Contributory factors are thought to be social and biological, leading to reduced access to health-care services. The study aims to develop and implement community-based support to increase awareness of and access to men’s mental health support networks and groups. Design/methodology/approach The project involved three key work-packages discussed in this paper: raising awareness of men’s mental health needs in health care, educational and community settings; collaboration between National Health Services (NHS) and non-NHS health-care support organisations to build multi-sector partnership working; and developing a supported sports-based community intervention aimed at men living with mental health conditions. The acceptability and feasibility of these work-packages were pragmatically evaluated through mixed-methods surveys and qualitative content analysis. Findings Overall, both community events and sports groups successfully engaged men living with mental health problems. Organisations interested in men’s mental health are continuing to engage in a partnership initiative. Community events were well-attended and received positive feedback, particularly regarding the educative and real-life experiences approach promoted in the events. The sports intervention is feasible and well-accepted by participants, who described feeling supported with their physical and mental health needs, with increased mental well-being reported. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this project are that the authors only evaluated a football group rather than all work areas. The project collected outcomes relating to participants’ demographics and qualitative reflections of participating in the football group along with a retrospective survey of perceived benefits, but the project did not undertake a pre- and post-comparison of well-being outcomes owing to low completion of these measures. Future work could focus on collecting more pre- and post-measures related to well-being, recovery and inclusion and compare these with men not involved in the football groups or public events. Practical implications This paper discusses the development and feasibility of setting up community-based men’s mental health support networks, involving public events, partnership working and targeted-sports interventions. All initiatives were well-received and successfully attended by men living with mental health conditions. Evaluation of the programme revealed the value placed on education about mental health and the role that community sports interventions may play in men’s mental health care. Social implications This project has demonstrated three different ways of supporting men’s mental health needs in the community. Community public events were held to raise awareness of men’s mental health needs and issues were well-attended and highlighted the need for health promotion and education in this area across all the communities. The men’s football group demonstrated the feasibility of moving mental health support out into a non-clinical and more community arena in a way that men engaged effectively. Finally, the creation of MensNet has bought together disparate multi-sector organisations successfully to lead public health mechanisms to support men’s mental health needs. Originality/value This paper describes a new multi-disciplined approach to supporting health-seeking challenges among men, in particular, how partnership working across NHS and non-NHS sectors can successfully support an identified public health need pragmatically using existing services and organisations.

scholarly journals Structuring mental health support for frontline caregivers during COVID-19: lessons from organisational scholarship on unit-aligned support

BMJ Leader ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Julia DiBenigno ◽  
Michaela Kerrissey
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Personnel ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Organisational Design ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Identity Conflicts ◽  
Employee Mental Health

BackgroundAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic exposes frontline caregivers to severe prolonged stresses and trauma, there has been little clarity on how healthcare organisations can structure support to address these mental health needs. This article translates organisational scholarship on professionals working in organisations to elucidate why traditional approaches to supporting employee mental health, which often ask employees to seek assistance from centralised resources that separate mental health personnel from frontline units, may be insufficient under crisis conditions. We identify a critical but often overlooked aspect of employee mental health support: how frontline professionals respond to mental health services. In high-risk, high-pressure fields, frontline professionals may perceive mental health support as coming at the expense of urgent frontline work goals (ie, patient care) and as clashing with their central professional identities (ie, as expert, self-reliant ironmen/women).FindingsTo address these pervasive goal and identity conflicts in professional organisations, we translate the results of a multiyear research study examining the US Army’s efforts to transform its mental health support during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We highlight parallels between providing support to frontline military units and frontline healthcare units during COVID-19 and surface implications for structuring mental health supports during a crisis. We describe how an intentional organisational design used by the US Army that assigned specific mental health personnel to frontline units helped to mitigate professional goal and identity conflicts by creating personalised relationships and contextualising mental health offerings.ConclusionAddressing frontline caregivers’ mental health needs is a vital part of health delivery organisations’ response to COVID-19, but without thoughtful organisational design, well-intentioned efforts may fall short. An approach that assigns individual mental health personnel to support specific frontline units may be particularly promising.

Assessing the mental health of college students by leveraging social media data

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
Koustuv Saha ◽  
Munmun De Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Data

The mental health of college students is a growing concern and gauging the mental health needs of this group is difficult to assess in real-time and in scale. The ubiquity and widespread use of social media, particularly among young adults, provides opportunities for various stakeholders to proactively assess the mental health of college students and provide timely and tailored support.

scholarly journals MyCare study: protocol for a controlled trial evaluating the effect of a community-based intervention on psychosocial, clinical outcomes and hospital admission rates for adults with severe mental illness

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e040610
Author(s):  
Renée O'Donnell ◽  
Melissa Savaglio ◽  
Debra Fast ◽  
Ash Vincent ◽  
Dave Vicary ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Hospital Admission ◽  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Admission Rates ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

IntroductionPeople with serious mental illness (SMI) often fail to receive adequate treatment. To provide a higher level of support, mental health systems have been reformed substantially to integrate mental healthcare into the community. MyCare is one such community-based mental health model of care. This paper describes the study protocol of a controlled trial examining the effect of MyCare on psychosocial and clinical outcomes and hospital admission and duration rates for adults with SMI.Methods and analysisThis is a multisite non-randomised controlled trial with a 3, 6 and 12-month follow-up period. The study participants will be adults (18–64 years of age) with SMI recruited from Hobart, Launceston and the North-West of Tasmania. The treatment group will include adults who receive both the MyCare intervention and standard mental health support; the control group will include adults who receive only standard mental health support. The primary outcome includes psychosocial and clinical functioning and the secondary outcome will examine hospital admission rates and duration of stay. Mixed-effects models will be used to examine outcome improvements between intake and follow-up. This trial will generate the evidence needed to evaluate the effect of a community mental health support programme delivered in Tasmania, Australia. If MyCare results in sustained positive outcomes for adults with SMI, it could potentially be scaled up more broadly across Australia, addressing the inequity and lack of comprehensive treatment that many individuals with SMI experience.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Tasmanian Health and Medical Human Research Ethics Committee. The findings will be disseminated to participants and staff who delivered the intervention, submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and shared at academic conferences.Trial registration numberACTRN12620000673943.

scholarly journals Business as Un-usual: Access to mental health and primary care services for people with severe mental illness during the COVID-19 restrictions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Newbronner ◽  
Panagiotis Spanakis ◽  
Ruth Wadman ◽  
Suzanne Crosland ◽  
Paul Heron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Primary Care Services ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

Aims: To explore: how satisfied people with severe mental illness (SMI) are with the support received during the pandemic; understand any difficulties encountered when accessing both mental health and primary care services; consider ways to mitigate these difficulties; and assess the perceived need for future support from mental health services. Materials and Methods: A representative sample was drawn from a large transdiagnostic clinical cohort of people with SMI, which was recruited between April 2016 and March 2020. The sample was re-surveyed a few months after the beginning of the restrictions. Descriptive frequency statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data. The free text responses were analysed thematically. Results: 367 participants responded to the survey. Two thirds were receiving support from mental health services with the rest supported in primary care or self-managing. A quarter thought they would need more mental health support in the coming year. Half had needed to used community mental health services during the pandemic and the majority had been able to get support. A minority reported that their mental health had deteriorated but they had either not got the supported they wanted or had not sought help. The biggest service change was the reduction in face-to-face appointments and increasing use of phone and video call support. Nearly half of those using mental health services found this change acceptable or even preferred it; acceptability was influenced by several factors. Participants were more likely to be satisfied with support received when seen in person. Discussion: Although most participants were satisfied with the mental health support they had received, a minority were not. This, couple with findings on future need for mental health support has implications for post pandemic demand on services. Remote care has brought benefits but also risks that it could increase inequalities in access to services.

Knowledge and attitudes towards hepatitis C and injecting drug use among mental-health support workers of a community managed organisation

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grenville Rose ◽  
Elena Cama ◽  
Loren Brener ◽  
Carla Treloar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Injecting Drug Use ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

Objectives People with mental illness are at significantly higher risk of acquiring hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared with the general population. This study assessed knowledge of and attitudes towards people with HCV and people who inject drugs (PWID) among support workers of clients with mental illness. Methods Support workers from a community managed organisation (CMO) in Australia were recruited to complete an online cross-sectional survey. The survey collected data about their knowledge of HCV and attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV. Results Valid responses were received from 117 support workers. Although HCV knowledge was moderate, there were significant knowledge gaps around transmission and treatment of HCV. Higher HCV knowledge was significantly associated with more positive attitudes towards PWID, but not with attitudes towards people with HCV. Participants had more positive attitudes towards people with HCV than towards PWID. Additionally, those with more positive attitudes towards HCV tended to also have more positive attitudes towards PWID. Conclusions Given that people with mental illness are at higher risk of acquiring HCV, these results point to the need for education targeted at support workers of clients with mental illness to increase HCV knowledge and promote positive attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV. What is known about this topic? The limited research available suggests that there are gaps in HCV knowledge among mental-health-service providers, although such research has generally targeted physicians. What does this paper add? This paper is the first to assess HCV knowledge, attitudes towards PWID and HCV among mental-health support workers. The findings suggest that although HCV knowledge is moderate, significant gaps exist, which are related to negative attitudes towards PWID. What are the implications for practitioners? Supportive and non-judgemental care is essential for people with mental illness and HCV, due to the potential for a double stigma arising from negative attitudes towards both mental illness and injecting drug use. This paper highlights the importance of targeted education for workers in the mental-health sector, to increase HCV knowledge and promote positive attitudes towards people with co-occurring mental-health, substance use problems and HCV.

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