Honest Open Proud for Adolescents With Mental Illness

Both due to fear of public stigma and due to self-stigma or shame, people with mental
illness may decide to keep their condition a secret or even to withdraw from other people
altogether in order to minimise the risk of being labelled. Secrecy can help on the short
term to protect individuals from public stigma, but often it has negative long-term
consequences such as social isolation, distress and unemployment. Disclosure, on the other
hand, carries the risk to be discriminated by others, but can reduce the burden of secrecy,
lead to support by others and reduce public stigma. In this study investigators aim to
evaluate whether a group program run both by people with mental illness (peers) and
professionals helps to reduce self-stigma and makes it easier for adolescents to handle the
necessary choices related to secrecy versus disclosure.

Inclusion Criteria:

- At least one self-reported current axis I or axis II disorder according to DSM-5
(American Psychiatric Association, 2013), which is not restricted to only
substance-related disorder(s)

- Age 13 to 18

- Ability to provide written informed consent

- Fluid in German (needed for self-report measures)

- At least a moderate level of self-reported disclosure-related distress/difficulty
(score 4 or higher on the screening item 'In general, how distressed or worried are
you in terms of secrecy or disclosure of your mental illness to others?', rated from
1, not at all, to 7, very much)

Exclusion Criteria:

- Self-reported diagnosis of only a substance- or alcohol-related disorder, without
non-substance related current psychiatric comorbidity. We will exclude people who
only have a substance-/alcohol-related disorder because the disclosure of these
disorders is not the topic of the HOP intervention

- Intellectual disability

- Organic disorders