What's up with everyone?': The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people.

BACKGROUND: In 2021, the Arts and Humanities Research Council commissioned a mass-media mental health campaign called "What's up With Everyone?" Here, innovative co-created messages were professionally storied and animated by an internationally recognized production company and focused on improving mental health literacy in five core areas: competition, social media, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and independence. AIMS: This study examines the impact of the "What's up With Everyone?" campaign on young people's mental health awareness. METHODS: Seventy-one (19 males, 51 females, M age = 19.20 years, SD = 1.66, range = 17-22) young people completed a one-sample, pre-post experiment to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and stigma of mental health struggles, as well as help-seeking for mental ill-health before and following exposure to animations. RESULTS: Paired and one-sample t-tests revealed that knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and willingness to seek support improved at post-test. There were also significant reductions in the stigma towards depression following the animations. CONCLUSIONS: Continued long-term investment in campaigns such as "What's up With Everyone?" seems warranted given the impact on mental health awareness, help-seeking, and stigma.

Young People's Trust in Cocreated Web-Based Resources to Promote Mental Health Literacy: Focus Group Study.

BACKGROUND: There is a pressing need to create resources to promote mental health literacy among young people. Digital media is one of the methods that can be used to successfully promote mental health literacy. Although digital mental health resources are generally favorably perceived by young people, one of the essential factors in whether they choose to use these interventions is trust. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore young people's trust-related concerns about and recommendations for the cocreated mental health website "What's Up With Everyone" by using TrustScapes. Our aim was to use the findings to improve the trustworthiness of the website and to inform future creators of web-based mental health resources. METHODS: In total, 30 young people (mean age 19, SD 1.509; range 17-21 years) participated in TrustScapes focus groups. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze both the TrustScapes worksheets and audio transcripts. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis revealed that the mental health website contains elements perceived to be both trustworthy and untrustworthy by young people. The relatable and high-quality design, which was achieved by cocreating the website with a team of design professionals and young people, was considered to increase trust. Creators' credibility also positively affected trust, but the logos and other information about the creators were recommended to be more salient for users. Suggestions were made to update the privacy policy and cookie settings and include communication functions on the platform to improve the trustworthiness of the website. CONCLUSIONS: Factors perceived to be trustworthy included the website's relatable, high-quality design and creators' credibility, whereas those perceived to be untrustworthy included the privacy policy and cookie settings. The findings highlighted the significance of collaborating with end users and industrial partners and the importance of making the trust-enabling factors salient for users. We hope that these findings will inform future creators of web-based mental health resources to make these resources as trustworthy and effective as possible.

What's Up With Everyone? A qualitative study on young people's perceptions of cocreated online animations to promote mental health literacy.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescence and young adulthood are especially critical times to learn about mental health, given that 75% of mental health issues are developed by the age of 24. Animations have great potential to effectively deliver mental health information to young people. A series of five short animated films to promote mental health literacy were created with and for young people in partnership with the multi-award-winning independent animation studio, Aardman Animations. The aim of this study was to explore young people's perceptions of the cocreated animated films. METHODS: Seven Youth Juries were conducted to capture young people's opinions and recommendations about the content related to mental health literacy and presentation style of the cocreated animated films. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the audio transcripts. RESULTS: Many participants reported a view that the animated films had the potential to promote mental health literacy, especially for understanding mental health and reducing stigma. Some recommendations were provided to improve the films, such as including subtitles and having a better transition to the companion website. CONCLUSION: Cocreated animations have great potential to promote the mental health literacy of young people. We hope that the findings from the present study will inform future media development to make them as effective as possible. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Young people were actively involved in the development, production, implementation and evaluation (up to the time before data analysis) of the animated films.

Digital video interventions and mental health literacy among young people: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Mental health literacy is important as it relates to understanding mental illness, increasing help-seeking efficacy, and reducing mental illness-related stigma. One method to improve the mental health literacy of young people is a digital video intervention. AIMS: A scoping review was conducted to map existing research in the area of digital video interventions for mental health literacy among young people. METHODS: The scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA-ScR checklist. All results were screened based on our inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Seventeen studies were selected for analysis. In most studies (n = 14), a digital video was the only intervention whereas three studies took a multi-intervention approach. Only two of the digital video interventions were co-created with people with mental illness or university students. All studies showed positive results in favor of digital video interventions in at least one component of mental health literacy or compared to one of the comparison conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Digital video interventions represent effective tools for enhancing mental health literacy. However, there is a need for active involvement of end-users in co-creation and to attend to the production quality so that the digital video intervention is as relevant, informed, and effective as possible.