Motivational Guest Speaker Presentation as an Anti-Stigma Intervention for US Army Soldiers

Stigma towards mental illness represents a significant challenge. No specific anti-stigma military training curricula currently exists. An infantry division sought to reduce stigma by inviting 2 guest speakers to address Soldiers. The intervention was designed on social contact theory and executed as a quality improvement project. The intervention was speakers self-disclosing their own mental health struggles and having the audience contact with persons from the stigmatized group. Postintervention evaluation (N=361) demonstrated significant reduction in stigma scores (t=8.128, df=329, P<.001, 2-tailed, d=0.3), and effect size was greatest (d=1.17) among those with greater baseline stigma scores. Soldiers also reported positive perceptions of help-seeking behaviors. Given these findings, other units could conduct these type of training events to target stigma toward mental illness.