Provider Perceptions of Mental Health Literacy Among Youth

Approximately one in five children will have a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime (Merikangas et al. Pediatrics 125:75-81, 2010). Despite this prevalence, many children are uninformed and unaware of how to recognize and manage mental health disorders. Previous efforts to increase mental health literacy focused on adults, not children. The purpose of this article is to begin filling this gap by utilizing a survey to describe children's mental health providers' perceptions of the amount, accuracy, and origin of mental health literacy in the children and adolescents they treat and how mental health literacy impacts their work. Eighty-seven mental health providers completed an online survey to explore perceptions of children's mental health literacy. Per providers' reports, results demonstrate that children's mental health literacy is low, inaccurate, and inconsistent. Consistent with previous research, providers reported that children primarily rely on friends and peers for information about mental health disorders, with family as a close second. Implications of these findings for social work practitioners, researchers, and children are discussed. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.