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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

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Help-seeking among young people with first-episode psychosis and cannabis use disorder: Insights from the Back to Reality video game series

HELP-SEEKING IN YOUTH WITH A FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS AND CANNABIS USE DISORDER: INSIGHTS USING THE BACK TO REALITY VIDEO GAME SERIES

Stigma, lack of knowledge, negative hospital experiences, and isolation were barriers to help-seeking among young people with first-episode psychosis and cannabis use disorder, while support and the game itself served as facilitators.

The study aimed to understand help-seeking behaviors among young people with first-episode psychosis and cannabis use disorder through their engagement with the Back to Reality video game series, identify barriers to and facilitators of access to care, and examine the potential of serious games as a knowledge translation tool for early engagement with mental health care. Using a qualitative design, the study recruited 28 participants aged 16 to 30 from five early psychosis intervention (EPI) programs in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montreal. Participants had diagnoses of psychosis and cannabis use disorder according to DSM-5 criteria and were within their first 12 months of EPI care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after participants played the game series, and the transcripts were examined using inductive thematic analysis. Forty-three percent of participants identified as Black; the highest level of education attained was reported as high school graduation for 43%, some postsecondary education for 29%, postsecondary graduation for 14%, and some high school education for 14%. The thematic analysis identified four barriers: stigma, lack of knowledge and education, negative hospital experiences, and isolation and a tendency to handle everything alone. Two facilitators were the importance of support and the game's role as an educational tool. The discussion noted that stigma and limited mental health literacy delayed symptom recognition and help-seeking, that frightening hospital experiences discouraged subsequent engagement with services, and that isolation and a tendency toward self-reliance reflected mistrust and cultural norms. Strengths of the study included centering the voices of underrepresented Black and racialized young people and its multicenter design. A limitation was that cannabis-related stigma in some communities may have shaped responses. The study concluded that the game encouraged reflection and professional help-seeking as a stigma-free educational tool, while noting that its real-world impact needs to be tested in future research.

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