Search

Introduction Mental Health Knowledge specific to symptom recognition, treatment efficacy, help-seeking, and employment can facilitate understanding when communicating with clinicians and reduce personal stigma. Better knowledge of mental illness has also been shown to decrease fear and embarrassment when interacting with people with mental illnesses. Thus, knowledge can play a key role in influencing behaviors and attitudes associated with stigma. Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate mental health knowledge among Tunisian students Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2501 Tunisian students from different academic institutions. They anonymously filled in a questionnaire circulated online through social networks in pages and groups of each university. The validated Arabic version of the “Mental Health Knowledge Schedule” (MAKS) was used to assess the knowledge about mental illnesses. Results The median MAKS score was equal to 45 out of 60, ranging from 30 to 56. In our study, 60.2% of the participants answered “don’t know” or “neither agree nor disagree” to item 1 indicating that “Most people with mental health problems want to have paid employment.”. Exactly 83.7% of the participants thought they knew what advice to give a friend to get professional help and 90% thought that psychotherapy could be effective in treating a person with a mental illness. In addition, 57.1% of participants thought that medication could be effective and 68.8% thought that people with severe mental health problems could make a full recovery. People with mental health problems do not seek professional help according to 39% of participants. About 90% were considering depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder as mental illnesses. Stress and drug addiction were considered mental illnesses according to 71% and 63% of participants respectively. Finally, 52.9% answered that grief was a mental illness. Conclusions In Tunisia, anti-stigma programs are almost nonexistent. Our results would allow us to take a baseline assessment of mental health knowledge and could be the starting point for anti-stigma interventions. We should combine these findings with a behavioral and attitudinal assessment to better address stigma. Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Introduction Mental illnesses affect one in eight people in the world according to the WHO in 2019. They are a leading cause of morbidity and a major public health problem. Stigma harms the quality of life of people with mental illness. Objectives Our study aimed to evaluate the association of mental illness stigma with socio-demographic characteristics in Tunisian students. Methods This is a cross-sectional study conducted on Tunisian students who anonymously completed a form circulated online through the groups and social network pages related to each academic institution. The form was containing an Arabic validated version of the “Mental Health Knowledge Schedule” (MAKS) and the “Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale” (RIBS) along with a sociodemographic questionnaire. Results We have included 2501 Tunisian students with a sex-ratio Male/Female of 0.37. The mean age was 21.57 (±2.55) ranging from 17 to 42 years. Participants’ fields of study were: Science and Technology (58.7%), Literature (17,4%), Economics and management (15.8%), and Arts (4.8%). Among them, 17.1% had a history of family psychiatric disorders and 17.6% had a psychiatric disorder. Besides, 20.9% of the students were using tobacco and 75.6% of them were religious. We also found that 26.7% of participants had previously attended an awareness session. Several determinants had a statistically significant association with the stigma of mental illness in our study population. We noted that females had higher mental health knowledge scores (p=0.001), while males had higher behavior scores (p=0.002). Moreover, students in the scientific and literary fields had higher scores on both MAKS (p

Introduction Over the years, several studies have shown the high rate of discrimination experienced in particular by mental health service users. Stigma is composed of three elements: knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes. Although behaviors are the core of discrimination, this element has often been overlooked or intertwined with the other components. Objectives Our study aimed to assess Tunisian students’ behavior toward people with mental illness Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 2501 Tunisian students who anonymously completed a form circulated online through social network groups and pages related to each academic institution. We have used the validated Arabic version of the “Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale” (RIBS) which assesses self-reported mental health behaviors and future intentions. Results The median RIBS score was 15 out of 20, ranging from 4 to 20. Among the participants, 40% were living or have lived with someone with a mental health problem and 49.7% would be willing to live with someone with a mental health problem. Moreover, 24% were working or have worked with a person with a mental health problem and 53.4% would be willing to work with him or her. In addition, 34% were having or have had a neighbor with a mental illness and 58% would be willing to have a neighbor with a mental illness. Finally, 51% were having or have had a close friend with a mental health problem and 83.7% answered that they would be able to maintain a relationship with a friend who had developed a mental health problem. Conclusions The assessment of behavior toward people with mental illness is fundamental as it has the most impact on individuals. However, behavior may be mediated by knowledge. Thus, it would be interesting to evaluate mental health knowledge to study the relationships between these constructs and optimize anti-stigma interventions. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

In the field of modern production systems, the process-parallel measurement of time-varying process forces and torques for high-level process monitoring is becoming increasingly important. Commonly utilized methods are based on additional sensors placed close to the working area. Unfortunately, this often leads to a higher complexity and additional costs due to the necessity of external hardware. An alternative approach is to evaluate the already available machine-internal signals of the subordinate drive systems. The process forces act on the load side of the machine axes in the form of disturbance forces and influence the drive-internal signals such as motor current or motor speed. To extract these disturbances, additional superimposed forces (e.g. friction and acceleration forces) and the influence of the feedback control as well as the mechanical system must be considered. Therefore, in the present paper, the application of various observer-based approaches for the estimation of load side disturbances on speed- controlled mechatronic drive systems will be examined. The investigations are performed on a simulation model of a speed-controlled machine axis. After an introduction, three different disturbance observers will be presented. Subsequently, the paper describes the structure of the simulation model including its parameterization based on test rig measurements. Afterwards, the performance of the disturbance observers will be investigated and compared taking selected influencing factors like changing controller and inertia parameters into account. The paper closes with a summary and an outlook.