Don’t man-up – IMSA-Iran

Name of the activity: Don’t man up

Country/NMO: IMSA-Iran

Program: Mental Health

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Mental Health among Medical Students

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)

General description:

“seeking help is not a sign of weakness”

Mental health is a main aspect of health and well-being. “don’t man up” is a two-days campaign, aim to increase awareness about common mental disorders among medical students and social stigma of mental problems, especially in men. We also conducted a research to investigate the prevalence of depression among students, and to compare the mental health status of male and female students from different fields and grades with each other.

Problem statement:

Depression is the most common cause of disability in the world, which can even lead to suicide. Every year, around 703,000 people die by suicide. Improving mental health and suicide prevention are associated with SDGs.

Medical students are often more prone to mental distress than the general population.

The incidence of suicide leading to death in men is 3 times higher than that of women. Society’s expectations and gender roles are major factors in creating stigma of mental problems among men.

Target groups:

• Medical students

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Healthcare Students

Objectives:

1- Increasing the awareness of students about common mental disorders among medical students, how to help a person at risk of suicide and gender stigma in men’s mental problems, by preparing content and publishing them in the form of Online and printed brochures and through face-to-face presentations at campaign booths on May 19 and 20.

2- Designing a poster to introduce and acquaint students with the project on the Instagram page and telegram channel of IMSA-medsab on May 17 and 18.

3- Holding the “”don’t man-up”” campaign in Sabzevar’s medical university with the aim of raising awareness in the field of mental health and the stigma around it and distributing questionnaires to check the mental health of the participants in 3 booths (in the university campus and Vasei and Heshmatieh hospitals) on the 19th and 20th of May.

4- Publication of a questionnaire among healthcare students of Sabzevar’s medical university on 19th and 20th of May.

Indicators:

1) Increasing the level of information of students receiving brochures or presentations about mental health and the stigma of mental problems by at least 30%

2) The satisfaction of at least 70% of people participating in the campaign

3) filling of at least 100 questionnaires by students within 2 days of the campaign

4) Participation of at least 100 people in the “”don’t man-up”” campaign

Methodology:

0-1)selection of the executive team,give them the necessary trainings

0-2)Coordination with the mental health department to evaluate the produced content and  questionnaire

Coordination with the cultural vice-chancellor of the university to set up campaign booths

1-1)Preparing Brochures(in two forms,printed and online)

1-2)Implementing the campaign in 2 days(May19and20) in the university campus, Vasei and Heshmatieh Hospitals.The first goal is to increase awareness.The second goal is to publish questionnaires(in 2 forms, printed and online)to compare the mental health status of students with each other

1-3)The three-part questionnaire:demographic information,the GHQ-28 questionnaire and a designed questionnaire.it has been checked by a psychologist in terms of content and validity.When filling out the questionnaire,students will sit in a private environment and then throw their filled questionnaire directly into the box already placed in the booth

2-1)Evaluations

2-2)Data analysis

Plans for evaluation:

The effectiveness of the brochures and oral presentations of the campaign executives is measured by the test sheet that is provided to the participants on the spot.

The number of people’s participation in completing the questionnaires is measured by counting the number of completed questionnaires.

The number of participants in the campaign is measured by the number of distributed brochures and filled questionnaires.

The assessment of increasing the ability of executive members in the field of teamwork skills, content production, project management and coordination is measured through quantitative and qualitative interviews with them.

Finally, data analysis will be done with the help of SPSS Statistics 26 software.

External collaborations:

Counseling and Mental Health Department of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences