Abstract

LOUREIRO, Luís; SEQUEIRA, Carlos; ROSA, Amorim  and  GOMES, Sara. Psychiatric labeling. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2014, n.spe1, pp.40-46. ISSN 1647-2160.

The acknowledgment of mental disorders as part of mental health literacy is referred to in literature as a prerequisite for professional help-seeking. It is also mentioned that the timely recognition and early help-seeking can avoid the exacerbation of problems and contribute to better health outcomes. AIM: To describe and analyze labels used by Portuguese adolescents to characterize situations of depression, schizophrenia and alcohol abuse among their peers; to identify in which way labels are predictors of help-seeking intention in the above stated mental health disorders. METHODS: This is a descriptive and correlational study, with QuALiSMental aplication to a representative sample of 3,436 14-17-year-old adolescents attending the 3rd cycle of basic and secondary education schools in the central region of mainland Portugal. RESULTS: From the labels highlighted by adolescents, we can observe that a substantial part of the sample does not recognize mental health problems. This deficit in acknowledgement can have implications in help-seeking intention, since the labels that correspond to correct problem identification, do not establish themselves as predictors with statistic significance. CONCLUSION: The results show that there is a wide scope for further intervention mainly through programs built to increase literacy levels in young people, thus making help-seeking behaviors possible.

Keywords : Mental health; Health promotion; Adolescence.

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