Research paperPublic attitudes toward depression and help-seeking: Impact of the OSPI-Europe depression awareness campaign in four European regions

- New insights in visibility and effectiveness of a public awareness campaign across four European regions.
- Less personal depression stigma in the intervention regions compared to control regions.
- Aware respondents in the intervention region report more openness toward seeking professional help compared to control.
- Findings exceed previous research regarding effects on help-seeking behaviour and distribution of intervention sites.
- Public campaigns are effective means in reducing stigma as part of multi-level intervention programmes.

BackgroundPublic attitudes toward depression and help-seeking behaviour are important factors influencing depressed people to obtain professional help and adequate treatment. OSPI-Europe is a multi-level suicide prevention programme including a public awareness campaign. It was implemented in four regions of four European countries (Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Portugal). This paper reports the results of the evaluation of the campaign, including its visibility and effects of the campaign on stigma associated with depression and help-seeking behaviour.MethodsA representative general population survey (N=4004) including measures on personal stigma, perceived stigma, openness to help, perceived value of help, and socio-demographic variables was conducted in the four intervention and four control regions in a cross-sectional pre-post design.ResultsThe public awareness campaign was considerably more visible in Germany and Portugal compared to Ireland and Hungary. Visibility was further affected by age and years of schooling. Personal stigma, perceived stigma and openness toward professional help varied significantly across the four countries. Respondents in the intervention regions showed significantly less personal depression stigma than respondents in the control regions after the campaign. Respondents of the intervention region who were aware of the campaign reported more openness toward seeking professional help than respondents who were unaware of it.ConclusionThe OSPI-Europe awareness campaign was visible and produced some positive results. At the same time, it proved to be difficult to show strong, measurable and unambiguous effects, which is in line with previous studies. Public awareness campaigns as conducted within OSPI-Europe can contribute to improved attitudes and knowledge about depression in the general public and produce synergistic effects, in particular when the dissemination of awareness campaign materials is simultaneously reinforced by other intervention levels of a multi-level intervention programme.LimitationsThe survey was cross-sectional and based on self-report, so no causal inferences could be drawn.