Impact of an intervention on stigma in mental health and intergroup anxiety

Abstract

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce stigmatizing attitudes and anxiety towards people with mental illness among nursing students. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study including an intentional sample of 99 nursing students from university of Central Portugal. In the control group, students developed the clinical teaching plan in mental health and psychiatric nursing in psychiatric health services, according to the syllabus (n=50). In the experimental group, in addition to complying with the syllabus, the students participated in a psychoeducational program oriented towards stigma (n=49). To assess stigma, the Portuguese versions of Mental Illness: Clinicians' Attitudes Scale (MICA-4) and AQ27 were used; and to measure intergroup anxiety, the Intergroup Anxiety Scale (IAS). Results: The sample presents homogeneous variables in the initial time (p>0.05), with statistically significant improvement of stigmatizing attitudes and reduction of anxiety towards people with mental illness in both studied groups (p<0.005). The impact of the intervention was not significant, the experimental group improved stigmatizing attitudes regarding fear (p=0.03) and the ones regarding help had worsened (p= 0.04). Conclusion: We verified a positive impact of clinical teaching in the reduction of anxiety towards people with mental illness, which led to a reduction of stigma associated to mental health. The intervention oriented towards stigma did not reveal significant effects concerning global stigma, nor intergroup anxiety, which showed the future necessity of its reformulation and comparison with samples of students from other nursing universities.