Moving Mountains with Metaphors – Brush Your Mind

Background:  Violence and depression are global health problems; prevention is a humane and cost-effective approach to address them. Resources for treatment and prevention are limited or unavailable.

Behavior change constitutes a major component of prevention, but is difficult to achieve in an equitable manner that reaches people of diverse socio-economic backgrounds, literacy levels and cultures.

Program background:  Self-regulation is a “common denominator” with respect to the etiology and prevention of depression. Widespread diffusion and adoption of this behavior has potential to reduce the incidence of violence and depression. But it is an abstract concept difficult to convey to broad audiences of varying health literacy levels.

“Brush Your Mind” is an initiative that aims to promote the diffusion and adoption of self-regulation as a universal level preventive measure to address mental health. It is grounded in Social Cognitive and Diffusion Theories, and the Trans-Theoretical Model of Behavior Change. The goal is to achieve widespread adoption of self-regulation practices.

Social media presents a cost-effective and potentially far reaching means of diffusing an innovation, especially via peer networks. The use of metaphor promotes understanding of an abstract concept. This particular metaphor builds upon one of the world’s most widely carried out acts of health-related self-regulation. Corollary channels include print and mass media.

In some ways, Brush Your Mind is a Silicon Valley start-up, as its elements were crystallized at Stanford University, and was funded by credit card and fueled by coffee. The first steps include a video cartoon for distribution via social media networks, and related web site.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The video and its precursor (storyboard), were reviewed by mental health professionals and diverse lay audiences ages 18 to 80+ years, in Europe and North America, and was received positively. The debut print element, an editorial, appeared in the Sunday edition of a major US newspaper with a circulation of 500,000 copies.

It was among the most emailed articles that week and there have been over 420 Facebook wall re-postings and 30 Tweets of the editorial. The newspaper did not disclose details of metrics due to their policy, but indicated they considered it very successful. Professionals and lay readers from four countries wrote the author seeking collaboration or further information. As a result of the editorial, the American Psychological Association invited the author to write about the initiative for their Public Intrest Directorate blog with over 6,000 readers (scheduled publication March 26^th, 2014).

A personal investment of approximately $3,000 combined with creativity, time and effort, indicate the first steps of a population level shift from pre-contemplation to contemplation (Trans-Theoretical Model), among lay and professional readers in the United States and other countries.

Conclusions:  Brush Your Mind is a promising metaphor to promote the mental health message of self-regulation. Social media, in combination with print, is a promising channel for diffusing this message, thereby helping to bridge economic divides and cultural differences in the fields of violence and depression prevention.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Early stage evaluation supports expansion of this initiative.