Stigma Of Mental Health

All of the components are based on a number of theories we have researched from our health communication class. The first theory we integrated into our campaign is the commitment-trust theory of relationships. This a marketing theory where people make choices and judgements based on trust, shared values, loyalty, and commitment. The biggest predictors of relationship strengths is trust and commitment. Once the relationship is established many benefits can follow, such as uncertainty reduction, sense of stability, and enhanced identity. The takeaway of this theory is by gaining trust through shared values we can establish a relationship that enables either person to have an influence on another. We based our awareness video ad on this theory.
We will be able to reach many people through social media by having a friend to friend connection. Starting with one person posting the video to their friends, with whom have an established friendship and will therefore be more open to watch the video and share. By having this chain of sharing we will establish more commitment and meaning than just a random paid advertisement.
The next theory is the critical cultural approach.
This approach demonstrates that health is not merely the result of individual choices, but is mixed with issues of culture, power, control, identity, and social consciousness. Health is socially constructed and enacted by the cultures we are surrounded by. This social context allows us to decide what is healthy, good, and acceptable. With this campaign on mental health, we want to bring awareness and make information available. Through, social media we can show how important our campaign is. We can use our campaign to normalize mental illness and show that mental health is an issue that pertains to everyone. By making mental health more socially and culturally acceptable, we can be the first step to erasing the stigma of mental illness. The stigma of mental health has become a barrier to care. There are models to display this; these models typically conceptualize care seeking as “a process that is influenced by social and cultural factors and one that involves symptom appraisal (for example, perceiving a need for mental health help) as well as acting on that appraisal ( 7 , 8). Empirical research supports these models, documenting that attitudes and beliefs about mental health and treatment have significant influences on help-seeking behavior, even after the severity of symptoms are controlled for” ( 9 ). We must make seeking for help culturally acceptable to people can start demonstrating more help-seeking behaviors, which
they acts as a model for other people to reach out for help.
Along with cultural acceptance there is also social acceptance which leads to my next theory of normative social behavior theory.
This states that “people are influenced by social norms to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how much they value the social approval to be gained by conforming.” We judge our opinion of others and even ourselves by what is socially relevant. With the world today becoming more and more dependent on social media as an access to information, this is where we focused a lot of our campaign components. Many people today choose what news articles or videos they are watching based on what their friends are posting. Less and less people are seeking out information and instead letting the information come to them through social media. Our hug challenge and awareness video can help reach many people through this social media
dependance.
Our last theory that we thought was very important in our campaign is the embedded behaviors model. This model looks at how likely a behavior changes based on the targeted behavior, how complex, familiar or novel it is. The perception of the changed behavior is also a factor. As we know, changing behaviors can be a challenge even if we know it is good for us. Just look at people who want to exercise more or are trying to quit smoking. For our campaign we want to raise awareness of mental health and to promote people to “talk it out”. Our toothbrush component is based off this theory. Everyone is always busy and might be resistant to making a big change. Writing on a toothbrush that asks you about your day turns a familiar routine into a reminder for improved mental health awareness. There is also a novelty factor in play. It kind of has the same effect of a joke on a popsicle stick or writings in a fortune cookie. People may not see an effect right away, but as they perform their daily routines, which include hygiene, checking out how you are feeling will also become routine. By using these theories as a base for our components we will be able to not only influence people but also to sustain these changes long term.