Children's Views on Mental Illness

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There is limited research on the attitudes of children and young people to mental illness and what factors shape these attitudes. With rates of mental health problems increasing in children and young people, it is important that misconceptions do not deter or delay help seeking. This paper describes the results of focus groups conducted with 10–18 year olds which used word play, art work and vignettes to facilitate discussion Qualitative analysis showed mental illness and learning disability were often conflated, with mental illness being characterised by low intelligence or impaired literacy. Despite anti-stigma campaigns young people have a poor understanding of mental illness and consider it a stigmatising condition associated with unpredictability and violence. The process of conducting focus discussion groups seemed to be an educative experience in the Socratic tradition. Such groups accompanied by information which targets common misconceptions may be a useful format for mental health promotion in schools. Based on these results ideas are advanced for ways of improving attitudes towards and understanding of mental illness.