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Community Ment Health J (2012) 48:193201
DOI 10.1007/s10597-011-9373-1
ORIGINAL PAPER
Evaluation of the Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative: Community Program to Promote AwarenessAbout Mental Health and Aging Issues
Faika Zanjani Tina Kruger Deborah Murray
Received: 3 November 2009 / Accepted: 3 January 2011 / Published online: 14 January 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate the Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative, designed to promote community awareness and knowledge about mental health and aging issues. This study occurred during 20072009 in 67 of 120 counties in Kentucky. A rural region (11 counties) received the intervention, consisting of focus groups, Extension Agent training, and television-based social marketing campaign. Partial-intervention counties (29 counties) received only the television-based social marketing campaign. The control counties (27 counties) received no intervention activities. Results indicated that the intervention counties agreed more with being able to assist elder adults with a potential mental illness. Also, the intervention counties understood the risk of consuming alcohol and medications better, but had a poorer recognition of drinking problems in elder adults. These ndings need to be considered within study limitations, such as measurement error, degree of intervention exposure, and regional differences across intervention groups. The study demonstrates that community interventions on mental health awareness and knowledge are feasible within majority rural regions, with Extension Agents being
gatekeepers, for promoting positive messages about mental
health and aging issues.
Keywords Community mental health Community
intervention Awareness and knowledge Rural health
Introduction
The Mental Healthiness Aging Initiative (MHAI) intervention program aims to promote the mental health of elder rural adults (person aged 65? years of age) by (a) developing community relationships in rural areas of Kentucky through partnership with Family Consumer Science (FCS) Extension Agents, (b) creating discussion in the community regarding mental health and aging, and (c) implementing a community mental health and aging awareness intervention program. The intervention program itself constituted of community focus groups, Extension Agent training session(s), and a television-based social marketing campaign. The intervention program was designed to communicate key messages and increase knowledge surrounding mental health and aging, using the information diffusion process (Rogers 2003). Implementing this project is a salient step toward decreasing mental health-related disadvantages experienced by elder adults, particularly those residing in rural communities...