The effect of mental ilnesses oriented education given to high school students on faith and social distance

The research is planned with the aim of searching the effect of mental illnesses oriented education on adolescents' fatih and on their social distances under the effect of design with semi-experimental pre-test and post-test control groups. The research was conducted in four high schools affiliated to the District National Education Directorate located in Afyon Dazkırı District Center. The application part of the study was carried out in the spring semester 2014-2015 academic year with the students who accepted to participate in the research study in these high schools. In order to determine the students to be employed; Faith Scale and Social Distance Scale for Mental Illness applied to 727 high school students studying in Dazkırı. The study continued with 154 students who scored high on the scale. When these students were identified, attention was paid to the high score of faith scale for mental illnesses. These students were divided into two groups of 78 interference and 76 control groups according to the simple random sampling method. The interference group was provided with a stigmatization training for mental illnesses planned with lecturing and debating for ten hours a week, with the films "A beatiful mind" and "We, you, they", which are known to contribute positively to mental illness oriented education. After the training, the effectiveness of the training was evaluated and the recommendations were made by comparing the interference and the control group. Ethically, the questionnaires were reapplied to the interference and control group one month after the end of the training, and then the same training for the interference group was given to the control group and a session to the students who wanted to participate in the training. When the research findings were examined, it was determined that the stigmatization training changed the faiths and social distance perceptions of the students towards mental illness positively (p <0,05). The faiths and social distance perceptions of mental illness of the students who were given the stigmatization training changed more positively than the students who were not given the stigmatization education. The education given to the adolescents was positively effected the attitude toward mental illness (p <0.05). Keywords: Education, Adolescence, Faith, Mental İllness, Social Distance