Mental health difficulties among males are an issue of public health concern. Men are also at higher risk of suicidal ideation and self-harm and are poor at help-seeking due to factors including stigma, cultural norms and gendered expectations of masculinity. Yet, in Nigeria, a significant gap remains in media orientation intervention to create awareness on symptoms of mental health difficulties and support channels to encourage help-seeking. In essence, the current study aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel intervention titled, psyChosOcial media awareNesS for SuiCIde symptoms, including other mental health PrOblems and help seeking mediUmS (CONSCIOUS) for addressing awareness of mental health difficulties in comparison to the waitlist control group for the purposes of improving men's help seeking, social support and reducing anxiety in Nigeria.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
74
The CONSCIOUS is 3 minutes recorded media message. The intervention is designed to promote awareness on how to prevent suicidal ideation and self-harm, stigma reduction and avenues or mediums for help-seeking. The core message is composed of three key ambits: 1) emphasizing what is meant by suicidal ideation and self-harm (ii) the need to seek help and stop societal stigmatising behaviour (iii) Avenues for help seeking and improved mental health and wellbeing.
Current available interventions to foster help seeking including leaflets, community health centre provision of information etc. This group will be later offered the CONSCIOUS intervention after completion of baseline and end of intervention assessment.
Service Satisfaction Scale
A five item scale that can be used to assess and measure satisfaction, acceptability and quality of the intervention. Higher score denote positive outcomes and acceptability. Lower score denotes poor satisfaction and acceptability.
Time frame: Immediately after the end of the intervention
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)
The GAD-7 is a seven item scale for screening, measuring and assessing the severity of generalised anxiety disorder. Scores of 5, 10, and 15 are taken as the cut-off points for mild, moderate and severe anxiety, respectively.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Attitude Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale
The ATSPPH is a 10-item scale that measures attitude towards seeking professional psychological help. Higher scores reflect increased positive attitude towards seeking professional psychological help while lower score reflects reduced attitude towards seeking help.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
General Help Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ)
The GHSQ is a 20-item scale measuring the likelihood of seeking help from a range of sources. The scale adopts a Likert style rating as follows: Extremely unlikely(1), Somewhat unlikely (2), Unlikely (3), Not sure (4), Likely =5, Somewhat likely = 6, Extremely likely =7. The scores are summed across all help-seeking items. For a standard 9-item list, total scores range from 9 to 63 points. Higher total scores indicate a greater overall intention to seek help from someone.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Self Stigma and Help Seeking (SSHS) Scale
The self-stigma and help seeking scale is a 10-item scale that measures stigma of seeking help. The scale features 10 items, each rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly. Items 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 are reverse-scored. The possible total score ranges from 10 to 50. Higher total scores indicate higher levels of internalised self-stigma associated with seeking professional psychological help.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Stigma of Suicide Scale (SOSS)
The Stigma of Suicide Scale (SOSS) measures public attitudes and stigma toward suicide, aiding research on societal perceptions and informing anti-stigma interventions to improve mental health outcomes. The long form consists of 58 items and the short form consists of 16 items. Each item consists of a one-word descriptor of a person who dies by suicide. A person completes the scale by rating how much they agree with each item being a descriptor of someone who takes their own life. Each item is to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. Higher scores indicate higher levels of stigma towards people who suicide.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS)
The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) is a 20-item, true/false self-report inventory designed to measure an individual's negative attitudes or pessimism about the future. Lower score indicate none or minimal while higher score indicate severe.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
European Quality of Life Scale EQ-5D-5L
The EQ-5D-5L is a 5 item scale designed to aid assessment of the generic quality of life. In the EQ-5D-5L, each dimension has five response levels: no problems (Level 1); slight (Level 2); moderate (Level 3); severe (Level 4); and extreme problems (Level 5). There are 3,125 possible health states defined by combining one level from each dimension, ranging from 11111 (full health) to 55555 (worst health).
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3)
The scale is a 3-item self-reported measure designed for assessing and measuring the level of social support. The sum score ranges from 3 to 14, with high values representing strong levels and low values representing poor levels of social support as indicated as follows: a) 3-8 poor social support, b) 9-11 moderate social support, c) 12-14 strong social support.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a standard diagnostic tool used to screen for and measure the severity of depression. Scores range from 0 to 27, calculated by assigning 0 to 3 points for each of the nine questions. Scores ≤4 suggest minimal depression which may not require treatment. Higher score suggest depression.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5)
The PCL-5 is a 20-item self-report questionnaire used to assess PTSD symptoms based on DSM-5 criteria. It evaluates symptoms over the past month on a 0 to 4 scale, yielding a total severity score from 0 to 80. A score of 31-33 or higher is generally considered the clinical cutoff. Scores in this range suggest a provisional PTSD diagnosis.
Time frame: Baseline (day 1) and at the end of intervention (day 2)
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