Faith-based mental health awareness in Lagos: evaluating knowledge, stigma, and referral outcomes from the MeHPriC...

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a faith-based mental health literacy intervention implemented in churches and mosques in Lagos, Nigeria, as part of the Mental Health in Primary Care (MeHPriC) initiative. The primary aim was to assess changes in mental health knowledge, stigma-related attitudes, and referral behaviour, and to examine the moderating effects of education, gender, language match, facilitator-faith congruence, and congregation size.

A total of 14,120 adult participants, recruited from 314 religious institutions (233 churches, 81 mosques), received a single 15-minute mental health awareness session delivered in their preferred language by trained facilitators. Validated instruments were used to assess mental health knowledge (Mental Health Knowledge Schedule, MAKS), stigma-related attitudes (Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale, RIBS), and referral behaviour at baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.

Significant improvements were observed in mental health knowledge (MAKS: from 17.6 to 21.5, p < 0.001, d = 0.55) and stigma-related attitudes (RIBS: from 12.9 to 16.1, p < 0.001, d = 0.68). Referral behaviour increased from 3.5% at baseline to 8.2% at 3 months (p < 0.001). Moderator effects were evident across all outcomes, with stronger improvements among participants who had higher education, preferred language alignment, female gender, faith-congruent facilitators, and attended medium-sized congregations.

Faith-based institutions can serve as effective platforms for delivering scalable, culturally adapted mental health interventions. The findings support further integration of religious venues into national mental health promotion strategies in LMICs, with attention to context-sensitive delivery and primary care linkage.