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Introduction
Mental health concerns (e.g. depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc.) are one of the top five leading causes of disability across the world (WHO, 2021). Evidence-based treatments, primarily behavioral-based therapies (e.g. cognitive behavior therapy; behavioral activation; acceptance and commitment therapy) have garnered considerable research support at improving outcomes for individuals experiencing mental health concerns. Despite this, a majority of individuals that experience mental health concerns go untreated, negatively affecting their overall quality of life (Alonso et al., 2018). It is evident that reducing the burden of mental health concerns will require a multi-pronged approach that includes both intervention and prevention programming to help individuals access care (WHO, 2021). A common framework for prevention programming is based on increasing individuals’ mental health literacy (MHL) to help increase access to effective care for self and others (Morgan et al., 2018; Seedaket et al., 2020).
MHL is defined as “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management, and prevention” (Jorm et al., 1997, p. 182). Research suggests that the general public typically report low levels of MHL, which could potentially interfere with abilities to recognize and respond to mental health concerns (Furnham and Swami, 2018). A common barrier to seeking treatment is lack of recognition that the mental health concern is serious enough to warrant treatment (Dunley and Papadopoulos, 2019). As a result, multiple training programs (e.g. Mental Health First Aid; Question Persuade Refer; Youth Aware of Mental Health Intervention) have been created to increase MHL and, as a byproduct, treatment seeking behaviors (e.g. screening for mental health concerns, seeking treatment; Wang et al., 2021).
Since their creation, these programs have proliferated across the USA via funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (El-Amin et al., 2018) with results generally showing increases in knowledge and self-efficacy, but mixed evidence of changes in behaviors related to MHL (Maslowski et al., 2019; Morgan et al., 2018). Additionally, results also seem to suggest that online compared to in-person delivery of these MHL programs are equally effective, with similar mixed evidence on changes in behaviors (Aller et al., 2022, 2022 Brijnath et al., 2016). It is important to gain a richer understanding of the specific behaviors that...