Evaluating the Impact of Mental Health Literacy on Inclusive Policy Development for Children with Special Needs: A Systematic Literature Review

This study aims to explore and synthesize the role of mental health literacy (MHL) in the development of policies that support the mental health of children with special needs. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach was used by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review guidelines and filter by year. Literature searches were conducted on integrated databases, including Elsevier Scholar, Science Direct, Sci-hub, Publish or Perish, Crossref and ResearchGate, for articles published between 2019 and 2024. The search keywords used were “mental health literacy” and “inclusive policy development”. From the search results, a total of ten articles were selected based on the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The findings suggest that improving mental health literacy among educators, policymakers, and parents can significantly support the development of more inclusive and effective policies. Future research needs to extend this analysis by considering cultural and demographic context variations in MHL implementation.