Current Research

Up To Me (Honest Open Proud) in College

A note on language: Though the program components are identical, the Honest Open Proud program goes by various names.  For the college version of the program being implemented and evaluated at the University of South Florida, the program is being called Up To Me.

Up To Me to Reduce the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness in the College Population

The goal of this project is to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a group-based intervention—Up To Me—in addressing the problem of self-stigma regarding mental illness among postsecondary students. 

Dr. Kristin Kosyluk is PI of this research project, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The project period is 9/01/21 - 8/31/24. Co-Investigators on this project include:

Dr. Tempestt Neal, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida

Dr. Patrick Corrigan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and PI of the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment. 

Dr. Mark Salzer, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Temple Univeristy, and Director of the NIDILRR-funded Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion. 

The contents of this web page were developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90IFRE0056).  NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  The contents of this web page do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Many people with lived experience are impacted by the self-stigma of mental illness: namely, the challenge to self-esteem and self-efficacy when stereotypes are internalized often leading to a Why Try effect (i.e., “Why try to get a job; Why try to live alone”). Research has fairly consistently shown self-stigma yields negative outcomes. Self-stigma undermines the pursuit of personal goals (such as postsecondary education) that reflect psychosocial functioning. Self-stigma is associated with failing to take advantages of opportunities that promote vocation and independent living (Link, 1982). People with high self-stigma are also less likely to develop social networks related to leisure (Perlick et al., 2001), and to experience strained social interactions (Farina, Allen, & Saul, 1968) impacting one’s sense of belonging within their community (Link, Cullen, Struening, Shrout, & Dohrenwend, 1989; Newheiser & Barreto, 2014; Newheiser, Barreto, Ellemers, Derks, & Scheepers, 2015). Self-stigma is also associated with worse quality of life (Corrigan, Sokol, & Rusch, 2013; El-Badri & Mellsop, 2007; Sirey, Bruce et al., 2001a,b; Staring et al., 2009).

Up To Me is a three-session program led by two trained facilitators (a student living with a mental illness and a counseling center staff member) in groups of six to ten participants. The program was developed through Community-Based Participatory Research with campus community members and has been translated into Spanish through a grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The program (1) helps participants weigh pros and cons of disclosing which vary by setting (e.g., coming out to one’s professor has different costs and benefits than coming out to one’s classmate or peer), (2) teaches relatively safe ways to disclose should the person decide to do so, and (3) helps people craft stories that reflect their disclosure goals. Up To Me was developed by the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment (NCSE) over a three year, mixed methods process that combined feedback of advocates with serious mental illness, providers, and family members.

Kristin Kosyluk, was a doctoral student and Program Coordinator of the NCSE during this time and was involved with program development. The college version of the program represents the fourth revision of manual, workbook, and fidelity assessment and includes adaptations and additions specific to a postsecondary population. Up To Me is thought to impact functioning through mediating effects on self-stigma. Results of two randomized controlled trials demonstrate benefits of the Up To Me program for adults with serious mental illness. The first (Rüsch et al., 2014) showed participants completing HOP recognized more benefits to disclosure and less need for secrecy. This in turn was related to diminished stress related to self-stigma and to disclosure as well as being more willing to ask for help when in need. In the second, a multisite study (Corrigan, Michaels et al., 2015), women who completed Up To Me showed significant reductions in depression compared to those in the control group, which were mediated by significant reductions in self-stigma and stress related to self-stigma. Completers also showed significant increase in perceived resources to deal with stigma compared to the control group.

This program is designed to reduce the self-stigma associated with mental illness by facilitating disclosure of one's mental illness specifically with college age students. The results of this study will help establish the efficacy of this program and should help guide the development of future anti-stigma programs, which may better the life experiences of people with mental illness on college campuses.​

Visit the Up To Me/HOP website to learn more about the program.

Click here to view Dr. Kosyluk's Youtube channel, which includes videos of all three Up To Me Lessons, and an explanatory animation video.