Effectiveness of an Anti-Stigma Intervention for Patients with Mental Disorders in Primary Care in Chile

Introduction: Stigma towards people with mental disorders hinders access to and the quality of healthcare globally. Reducing this situation among healthcare professionals requires specific interventions. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an anti-stigma intervention program for patients with mental disorders at a CESFAM in Biobío. Materials and Methods: A quantitative, analytical, pre-experimental, and longitudinal study was conducted with 40 healthcare professionals selected using stratified random sampling. Participants with more than one year of experience, direct contact with users, and who had attended at least one workshop were included. Those with justified absenteeism from work were excluded. The WHO-HC questionnaire was administered in January 2024 (pre-intervention) and June 2024 (post-intervention). The educational intervention was conducted between March and June 2024. Student’s T-test, Wilcoxon’s W test, ANOVA, Games-Howell post-hoc tests, and Spearman’s Rho coefficient were used for the analysis. Results: The sample consisted predominantly of women (72.5 %) and professionals aged 30-39 (45 %). The mean questionnaire score was 46.2 (SD ± 8.30) at pre-intervention, remaining unchanged at post-intervention (SD ± 9.4). No statistically significant differences were found in the post-intervention questionnaire. Conclusion: No reduction in stigma was evident after the intervention. Differences in stigmatizing attitudes were observed based on age and social class, indicating an increase in stigmatizing attitudes associated with years of service; this suggests the use of more targeted approaches to address the problem.