The Impact of Mental Health Literacy (MHL) in a College Reading Enhancement Course

The article describes the results of Mental Health Literacy (MHL) embedded in an undergraduate college reading enhancement course. Post-secondary institutions are aware of today’s mental health epidemic and are creating strategies to help students gain awareness of mental health. MHL has been defined as the knowledge and beliefs individuals have about mental conditions that lead to “recognition, management, or prevention” (Jorm et al.,1997, p. 182). In this study, students enrolled in the academic course rated the effectiveness and quality of the MHL sessions using a Qualtrics survey, an online surveying tool. The college reading enhancement course is designed to provide students with instruction and practice in enhancing their vocabulary and comprehension skills. The results of the study indicated that the participants perceived the MHL sessions as beneficial. Participants provided optimistic ratings and views on the MHL guest lecture, the content presented, and their overall experience. Based on the positive results of this study, the researcher concluded that embedding MHL sessions into post-secondary classrooms could be a valuable strategy to enhance mental awareness on post-secondary campuses.