Mental Health Nurses who have direct contact with consumers can exhibit discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental illness. Anti-stigma interventions are effective in improving attitudes towards mental illness to facilitate the recovery of people with mental illness and the contact-based interventions are more commendable than other varieties of education and training.

The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of consumer-led education about stigma towards mental illness among mental health nurses. A sequential explanatory mixed-method with a pre and post-test design was used to assess the effect of consumer-led education.

The results show that participants generally had positive attitudes towards mental illness with some room for improvement. However, there were some negative views regarding the disclosure of mental illness. Meanwhile, consumer-led education significantly enhanced positive attitudes towards mental illness immediately after the interventions with sustainable effects three months later. Three main themes emerged from the qualitative exploration of attitudes towards mental illness. They were variable reflections, systems issues and interpersonal relationships.

Findings from this research may inform other health services about consumer-led education influencing cultures of practice in adult acute inpatient units. However, future research should be focused on behavioural outcomes using a large sample with a randomized controlled trial.