This source discusses the stigma surrounding mental health, where it comes from, how it effects individuals suffering from mental illness and how the stigma presents itself in society, individuals and the profession. In this journal Ahmedani emphasises the overwhelming amount of people who do not recieve help for their mental illeness, he discusses to what extenet this is a result of the stigma and why that would be. The source defines Stigma as stereotypes or negative views placed on individuals or groups when percieved as different from the social norm. It details the different dimenstions that make up the mental health stigma and what this looks like in an every day sense. Amedani hilights the three levels of stimga as social stigma, self stigma and health professional stigma. He discusses how each of these affects a patients likelyhood of seeking or finishing treatment. 

This source really helped me challenge my own perspectives on mental health and gave me a solid understanding on the stigma surrounding it. It was important for me to understand this topic as it is a huge factor I need consider when developing my ad if I want it to affectivly appeal to my target audience.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021, Mental health services in Australia, Australian Government, viewed 6 April 2021, < https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-health-services/mental-health-services-in-australia/report-contents/summary/prevalence-and-policies>.

This source is an online article produced by the Australian government to discuss the prevelence, impact and burden of meantal health in the Australian community. It provides a lot of govermnet sourced statistics from cnesus' and other governments research. I thought it would be appropriate to get an idea of the prevelence and "impact and burden" for Australia specifically. From other sources I discovered that it is important to understand an individuals culture to understand their help-seeking behaviour, so I thought I should find a source to discover more about Australia's culture around mental health in a generalised form.

The source also comfirmed that anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in australia which supports my decidsion to use it within my add for the biggest possible audience within my classifications.

Barak, A & Hen, L & Boniel-Nissim, N & Shapira, N 2008, ‘A Comprehensive Review and a Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Psychotherapeutic Interventions’, Journal of Technology in Human Services, vol. 26, pp. 109-160.

This source debates the effectiveness of internet-based therapy through analysis of a variety of data. It provided a comprehensive set of statistics and collated interesting concpets debated by other researchers. I found it beneficial to my understanding of the limitations fo my own product and the benifits too. 

This article elightened me to the perception of online therapy and the fears, expectations, and doubts that individuals may have. I can use this information to break down and defy the expectations or assumptions that my audience may have about my product. This study found that online therapy was especially effective in treating anxiety and stress on par with face to face therapy. It also opened up the topic of ethics in patienty data security and confidentiality which i may need to adress in my ad to provide confidence. 

Choudhry FR, Mani V, Ming LC, Khan TM 2016, ‘Beliefs and perceptions about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis’, Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat, vol. 12, pp 2807-2818.

This source gave me a broad understanding of mental health and how it is understood through different cultures and experiences. It talks about the cultural factors that can influence an individual's belief and knowledge of mental health and how this is shaped through personal knowledge or interaction with another individual suffering from a mental illness. For example the article notes that within the jewish population, mental health issues are percieved as an opportunity to recieve divine messages while Pacific Islanders often relate mental illness to family conflict. The article talks about how the perception of mental health illness affects help-seeking behaviour. This article synthesised multiple qualitative studys to form a discussion on the relevent topic. The source devided its results discussion in the following four main topics: symptoms of mental health issues, description of mental health issues, percieved causes and preffered treatment and help-seeking behaviour. The discussion was well supported by the data and statistics synthesised.

This article again challenged my perspectives on mental health, explaining how culture can affect help-seeking behaviours which is important for me to understand as I try to market my app to my target audience. My target audience isnt culturally specific so I must make sure i take into account the different cultural interpretations of mental health illness and how this will effect help-seeking behaviours as this will effect their willingness to interact with my product.

Jefferies, P & Ungar, M 2020, ‘Social anxiety in young people: A prevalence study in seven countries’, PLoS ONE, pp. 1-10.

This research article on conducted by Phillip Jefferies and Michael Ungar published by PLos ONE was a useful and credible source. The research article has been peer reviewed with the review details published along side the artice. From this source I gained an educated understanding of the prevelence of Social Anxiety in the current world and the demographic of affected individuals. The research was conducted with participents across seven different countries with almost equal representations of male and females between the ages 16-29. The research hilighted the number of individuals who indeed had social aniety diorder, and those who tested positive for the disorder but did not percieve themselves an individual with a social anxiety diorder. It was found that the social anxiety disorder diproportionately affects younger people.
Many statistics stood out to me and proved useful for my target audience research:
- " more than 1 in 3 (36%) respondents meeting the threshold criteria for having Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)." (Jefferies, P & Ungar, M 2020, p. 1).
- "Prevalence and severity of social anxiety symptoms did not differ between sexes" (Jefferies, P & Ungar, M 2020, p. 1).
- " 1 in 6 (18%) perceived themselves as not having social anxiety, yet still met or exceeded the threshold for SAD. The data indicate that social anxiety is a concern for young adults around the world, many of whom do not recognise the difficulties they may experience " (Jefferies, P & Ungar, M 2020, p. 1).
- " Studies also indicate younger individuals are disproportionately affected by social anxiety, with prevalence rates at around 10% by the end of adolescence [22–24], with 90% of cases occurring by age 23 [16]." (Jefferies, P & Ungar, M 2020, p. 2).

Stein,  MB & Stein, DJ 2008, ‘Social anxiety disorder’, The Lancet, vol. 371, no. 9618, pp 1115-1125.

This article is a coprehensive guide to all that is Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). It provides a clinical definition of SAD along with the diagnostic criteria. It explains the profile of someone suffering from SAD, detailing the symptoms and traits. The article features an extensive epidemiology of SAD including prevelence, age, gender and perceptions. The causes and pathogenesis are detalied as well as various treatment techniques and their effectiveness.

It is crucial for me to understand exactly what SAD is, along with it's symptoms and traits to accurately and sesnsitively potray a character with SAD. The expereience depicted has to be genuine if it is to relate to SAD sufferers or those unaware of their condition. It is also important for me to know the effective treatments so that I can display an accurate interaction with my service in the resolution of my ad.