ASTEC phase 3i

The objectives of the dissemination phase are to:

• Publish phase three findings to both specialist and non-specialist mental health audiences
• Produce an off-the-shelf training pack aimed at medical audiences and the promotion of the same to medical schools
• Publicise the findings of phase three by way of presentations at national and international psychiatric conferences
• Production of DVD with recorded service user and carer personal perspectives.

Comparison of live versus recorded service user and carer statements and testimonies through production of DVD. 

We will, during this dissemination phase, produce a DVD of service user and carer perspectives.  One of the strongest findings in the research literature is that direct exposure to people with mental illness is one of the factors most likely to promote more favourable and less rejecting reactions and attitudes (social contact). It is not currently known whether the live participation of service users and carers (more expensive and logistically, and sometimes ethically, more difficult) is necessary or if all or most of this effect can be achieved using recorded statements or testimonies from service users and carers (initially cost and time consuming to produce, and subsequently easy and inexpensive as a teaching tool, with proper ethical and intellectual property safeguards). 

This would, thereafter, form the beginnings of a future phase of the ASTEC project, when we would be able to robustly compare the effects for stigma-reduction of live service users describing their mental health condition and their experience of using mental health services, compared with using a recorded (DVD) version of such statements.