Objective(s): Improving mental health literacy can have a significant impact on knowledge, attitude, beliefs and help-seeking methods. This effect can help prevent, identify, treat and manage mental health disorders. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of face-to-face and virtual educational intervention program on the mental health literacy of elementary school teachers in Sanandaj city.
Methods: This research was conducted by an intervention method on 198 primary school teachers in Sanandaj city in 2023. The samples were divided into three groups: 6 clusters in the face-to-face training group (69 teachers), 6 clusters in the virtual training group (64 teachers) and 6 clusters in the control group (65 teachers). Educational content was uploaded in Shad messenger for the virtual intervention group in three sessions in two consecutive weeks, and three 2-hour face-to-face training sessions were held in the face-to-face intervention group in two weeks. Teachers' mental health literacy was evaluated before and after the intervention and one month after that using mental health literacy questionaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS.22 software. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.
Results: The results showed that in the face-to-face education group, the average mental health literacy score before the intervention was (79.9±10.1), which increased to (89.6±10.8) after the intervention, and in the follow-up phase (83.6±12.1) was obtained (P value=0.001).In the virtual education group, the average score before the intervention was (82.3±0.9) and after the intervention it increased to (91.9±14.1) and in the follow-up phase (0.86±0.15) was received (P value = 0.0001). However, in the control group, there was no significant difference in the mean scores of mental health literacy before and after the intervention.
Conclusion: Educational interventions, both face-to-face and virtual, had a positive and significant effect on mental health literacy and awareness of primary teachers. These results show that trainings related to mental health can help improve the mental health status of teachers.