The impact of beyondblue: The national depression initiative on the Australian public's recognition of depression and beliefs about treatments

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate whether a campaign to increase public knowledge about depression (beyondblue: the national depression initiative) has influenced the Australian public's ability to recognize depression and their beliefs about treatments. Method: Data from national surveys of mental health literacy in 1995 and 2003-04 were analysed to see if states and territories which funded beyondblue (the high exposure states) had greater change than those that did not (the low exposure states). In both surveys, participants were asked what was wrong with a person in a depression case vignette and to give opinions about the likely helpfulness for this person of a range of treatments. In the 2003-04 ..