Student filmmakers' attitudes towards mental illness and its cinematic representation - an evaluation of a training intervention for film students.

BACKGROUND: Government strategy for mental health places tackling stigma as a main priority. National initiatives have attempted to tackle stigma by challenging negative media reporting and the use of stereotyped representations of mental illness, with mixed results. Educational interventions have attempted to address stigmatising attitudes in young people but no studies have explored the value of such interventions for film students.

AIMS: The study aimed to assess the value of a lecture-based training intervention designed to improve the knowledge and attitudes of student filmmakers towards mental illness and its cinematic representation.

METHOD: A self-report questionnaire was administered before and after the intervention, which measured the knowledge and attitudes of the subjects.

RESULTS: 32 out of 54 students (59.3%) showed statistically significant improvement in attitudes and knowledge overall, although this was less marked in responses to the attitudinal subset questions compared with knowledge-based questions. Feedback was positive.

CONCLUSIONS: The training session was successful in its aims for most but not all students. The intervention is reproducible but further work needs to be done to clarify how best to influence attitudes and behaviour as well as knowledge.