Teachers' Mental Health Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes: Basis for Teachers' Mental Health Program

In school setting, students’ mental health is given emphasis whilst teachers’ mental health is given little emphasis. This was the premise of this study to quantitatively examine the public-school teachers’ mental health literacy (MHL), help-seeking attitude, and intention, and to create an research-based mental health program and framework. All participants (n=1213) answered the MHL questionnaire, mental help-seeking attitude and intention scales, and general help-seeking questionnaire. Results showed that teachers had high help-seeking attitude and intention, and personal-emotional problems significantly affected their MHL. They had a tendency to pose erroneous beliefs about mental health. They also most likely would go to their parents, mental health professionals, and partners if they experience personal and emotional problems while those who would experience suicidal thoughts tend not to seek MHL. The mental health program and framework were generated from these results to address teachers’ mental health concerns.