Enhancing the Outcomes of Mental Health Education for Health Undergraduates: A Realist Review of Effective Approaches

Introduction: Building a supportive and resilient healthcare workforce starts with educating health profession students. Health profession students need mental health literacy to be prepared to support themselves, each other and their future patients with mental health challenges. The aim of this study was to understand the current landscape of teaching and learning approaches to mental health education for undergraduate health profession students. Methodology: A realist review was chosen to explore what works for whom, how, and why in teaching and learning for mental health education for undergraduate health profession students. The search strategy was developed iteratively, with support from a research librarian, and additional searches supplemented the initial search. Following screening in duplicate, the selected studies were appraised for relevance, richness and rigour. Intervention (I), Context (C), Actor (A), Mechanism (M) and Outcome (O) configurations were extracted from the data and analysed for patterns and conceptual areas. Stakeholder and Patient and Public Involvement panels supported the refinement of both the Initial Programme Theory (IPT) and Programme Theories (PT). Results: 78 articles were included. There was evidence for a number of different teaching and learning approaches. The key themes identified were; direct contact with people with lived experience, longitudinal integrative approach to learning, and diversity of experiential and community engaged learning. Conclusion: Our realist review identified three critical programme theories for teaching and learning strategies that foster this literacy, including direct engagement with individuals who have lived experiences, a longitudinal and integrative approach to education, and a diverse array of experiential and community-engaged learning opportunities.