Background Workplace mental illness stigma is associated with negative consequences for individual, social, and structural (e.g., employment) aspects. Thus, multilevel interventions such as the Canadian program The Working Mind (TWM) are needed to address all aspects of stigma simultaneously. Regarding stigma reduction, few studies have examined the potential to also increase mental health literacy and resilience or addressed personal values. Aim In this first international adaptation of TWM, we culturally adapted and evaluated TWM in the context of a German university regarding stigma, mental health literacy and resilience, while examining the role of values. Methods The study followed a quasi-experimental, sequential explanative mixed-methods research design (QUAN → qual) with assessments before, after the intervention and at 6-month follow-up. The sample consisted of managers and employees (intervention group: N = 69; control group: N = 49). Results The intervention group showed significantly higher mental health literacy post-intervention compared to the control group after adjusting for baseline values, with a large effect size. Other effects were mainly small- to medium-sized but non-significant. Personal values of self-transcendence did not moderate the effect on mental illness stigma. Qualitative results showed an improvement on resilience for managers and employees and replicate the increase in mental health literacy. Discussion Overall, we observed positive effects and trends of TWM regarding stigma, mental health literacy, and resilience. Possibly due to power limitations, baseline-adjusted group differences in stigma and resilience did not reach statistical significance. Value-based measures may explain inter-individual differences. Replication studies are needed to examine the observed effects in larger samples.
Stoll et al. (Fri,) studied this question.