Community mental health education aims to educate the public about mental health conditions and treatment methods, promote preventative activities, and change public attitudes. It targets vulnerable groups, community leaders, and caregivers. Techniques include group discussions, media campaigns, and lectures. Content is tailored to the target group and goals. While some studies show positive effects, the effectiveness of mental health education is mixed and it is difficult to directly improve mental well-being. However, providing information can still reassure the public and establish standards to evaluate their own mental health.

1. COUNSELLING IN COMMUNITY SETTINGS

2. MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION

3. GOALS
• Mental health education is intended to
serve two broad though related purposes:
1)to educate the public and its leaders about
the nature of mental disorders and methods
of treatment,to convey the magnitude of the
problem and to mobilize action toward
improving the care and treatment of the
mentally disturbed.
• The plea is for interest and compassion
rather than stigmatization and rejection.

4. 2)to improve the mental health of the community
by encouraging preventive
activities.Professional associations,citizen’s
groups and governmental agencies engage in
educational activities towards these ends.
• Mental health education is one of the essential
functions expected of community mental health
centers under federal support.The effort to
inform and change public attitudes is an
important theme of community psychology.

5. THE PRACTICE OF MENTAL HEALTH
EDUCATION
• Practice in this realm can be considered in
terms of three components:technique,target
group and content(National Assembly on
Mental Health Education ,1960;Adelson and
Lurie,1972)

6. TECHNIQUE
• A major thrust in mental health education in recent
years is the greater utilization of group processes for
developing understanding of mental health issues.
• From the work on group dynamics and the related
efforts in the “dynamics of planned change” (e.g.,Lippit
,Watson,and Wesley,1958;Bennis and Shepard,1961)in
the Lewinian tradition, there is increasing recognition
of potential of problem solving and attitude change in
the mental health realm as well as other aspects of
social life (Adelsonand Lurie, 1972).

7. • Where people participate themselves in the
educational process,rather than being “educated
at,”change is likely to be quicker and more
permanent.
• Hence, a major effort of mental health educators
involves group discussions in which the educator
is more a resource person than a lecturer.
• In this regard, it can be noted that
consultation,though considered as a separate
topic , can be conceived in much the same
framework and is actually a major technique for
providing mental health education.

8. • The mass media ,however ,remain the primary
route for reaching the public at large .Television
,Newspapers, and magazines carry reports on
mental health programs and developments.
• Problems of neurosis and psychotherapy have
become familiar on many TV dramatic
programs,as have concerns with drug
abuse,health programs are pictured, such as crisis
clinics,suicide prevention, and community mental
health centers.
• All of this reduces the strangeness and
fearsomeness of the work of mental health.

9. • Lectures to organized groups (whether to the
Lions Club or an eighth- gradeclass)
,demonstrations,and films are important ways
of communicating mental health information.
• Movies have been produced for many special
audiences and are often shown along with
discussions led by a professional .
• Mental health associations and professional
groups have speakers bureaus which provide
speakers on request.

10. CONTENT
• What is taught relates both to the technique
used and to the needs of the target group ,as
well as the goals of mental health educator.
• Thus ,if the purpose is to strengthen support
for mental health facilities in the community
,and the audience is composed of community
leaders,then presentations may include
mental health statistics ,cost benefit
accounting, or limitations of present
rediscussion.

11. • With a parent’s group ,the focus is more likely
to be on matters of child development and
their import for later mental health.
• In order to be effective , an educator must not
only have a broad knowledge of
psychopathology ,development ,intervention
methods ,social problems ,and understanding
of the organization and facilities of mental
health,but also have the knowledge and skills
of communication and group processes .

12. TARGET GROUP
• In any community there are numerous potential target
groups .Adelson and Lurie (1972)suggest three major
groups who should be given the highest priorities in
mental health education.
1) Those Vulnerable to Emotional Disorder .
• This includes children and their families ,groups going
through any developmental crisis ,such as starting in a
new school career, or those facing special stresses,such
as illness or loss of a job,and those under long-term
stress ,such as inadequate housing,chronic
unemployment ,and the like.
• In these cases , the primary purpose of education is to
help these groups to deal with their problems.

13. 2)Those Holding Power in the Community.
• Whether local ,state wide, or national those
belonging to the power structure are important
targets since the face of the mental health
enterprise , whether a local community clinic or a
national research program and depends on their
understanding and goodwill.
• For other reasons ,however , the powerless and
deprived are also of concern for increased
understanding on their part can lead to their
taking a more vital part in the development of
services best suited to their needs.

14. 3)Those with Care –taking Functions.
• Teachers ,ministers and physicians and the
police need mental health information
because they are involved,in more or less
direct ways, with the problems of vulnerable
people.

15. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MENTAL HEALTH
EDUCATION
• Reviewing the experimental literature on
mental health education.J.A.Davis
(1965)concludes that no simple overall
conclusion as to its effectiveness can be
reached .
• Many of the published studies concern
student groups ,though some evaluate
programs addressed to adult audiences.

16. • In many cases ,positive effects were found in
experiments involving exposure to written
material, lectures or group discussion,but in
others no effects or negative findings emerged,
which led Davis to the conclusion that successful
and unsuccessful programs could not readly be
distinguished.
• What does seem true , however, is that
effectiveness of the educational effort varies with
the particular facet of behavior which the
experimenter attempts to.

17. • Little is known about the effects on personal
and subjective feelings of happiness,
effectiveness and the like.
• “A key assumption of existing mental health
education programs that mass exposure to
books ,pamphlets,movies, and so on,has a
positive effect on subjective states has not
been studied”(J.A.Davis,1965,p.137).

18. • The educator in the field of cancer control, for
example,can deliver the simple message that smoking
can be detrimental to your health,but mental health
educators have few such straightforward messages to
deliver.
• Inadequate mothering can lead to psychological
disturbance in the child,but this can hardly be
translated into a directive for action of sort “if your
child is to be psychologically sound,be an adequate
mother!” Thus far ,mental health education can better
serve attitude change toward the goal of improving the
understanding and care of the mentally ill than it can
be used for altering the feelings and actions of the
recipient so as to assure his or his family’s better
mental health.

19. • Because of the lack of more complete and
more specific working principles, the joint
commission of mental illness and Health took
the conservative position: “We should avoid
the risk of false promise in ‘education for
better mental health’ and focus on the more
modest goals of disseminating such
information about mental illness as the public
needs and wants in order to recognize
psychological forms of illness and to arrive at
an informed opinion of its responsibility
toward the mentally ill”(1961,p.277).

20. • Informed public opinion is an important goal
in itself.People are understandably curious to
learn what is known about human psychology
and psychologists are obliged to share their
knowledge.
• Regardless of whether such a knowledge may
or maynot lead to greater peace of mind,it is
important that it will be available as a basis for
informed opinion on public questions

21. • More over ,as J.A.Davis(1965)notes ,making
psychological knowledge available serves
three additional purposes:
(1)having information reassures.The Nunnally
studies showed how unsure people were in
matters pertaining to mental health , and how
eager they were for authoritative and factual
material .Getting information,even if
incomplete reduced their fears

22. (2)information provides standards for evaluating
oneself.We often judge our own situation in
relation to what we believe of others to be.To the
extent that we lack correct information,we can
misjudge
(3)information can inoculate against the shock of
oncoming stress ,as we noted in our earlier
discussion of anticipatory crisis intervention.The
unexpected and unknown is more threatening
than the known,even when there are few specific
things that can be done to avert it.

23. CONCLUSION
• Community mental health education can help to
reduce stigma surrounding mental health
conditions and promote a positive mental health
environment.
• Change in the perception of mental health often
starts with individuals; moves to families, the
workplace, and schools; and ends with
community leaders who are then equipped to
maintain formal and informal community
education efforts surrounding mental health.