Does Mental Health First Aid training improve the mental health of aid recipients? The training for parents of teenagers randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background There is well-established evidence that Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training improves knowledge about how to support someone developing a mental health problem, but less evidence that this support improves the mental health of the recipient of aid. This randomised controlled trial aimed to assess the long-term effects of MHFA training of parents on the mental health of their adolescent children. Methods 384 Australian parents of an adolescent aged 12–15 were randomised to receive either the 14-h Youth MHFA course or the 15-h Australian Red Cross Provide First Aid course. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow-up in both parents and adolescents. Primary outcomes were cases of adolescent mental health problems, and parental support towards their adolescent if they developed a mental health problem, rated by the parent and adolescent. Secondary outcomes included parent knowledge about mental health problems, intentions and confidence in supporting a young person, stigmatizing attitudes, and help-seeking for mental health problems. Results Parent and adolescent reports showed no significant difference between training groups in the proportion of cases of adolescents with a mental health problem over time (ps > .05). There was also no significant difference between training groups in the quality of parental support provided to their adolescent at 1- or 2-year follow-up (ps > .05). In contrast, some secondary outcomes showed benefits from the Youth MHFA training relative to the control, with increased parental knowledge about mental health problems at 1-year (d = 0.43) and 2-year follow-up (d = 0.26), and increased confidence to help a young person (d = 0.26) and intentions to provide effective support (d = 0.22) at 1-year follow-up. Conclusions The study showed some improvements in mental health literacy in training recipients, but could not detect changes in the mental health of adolescents and the support provided to them by their parents if they had a mental health problem. However, there was a lack of power to detect primary outcome effects and therefore the question of whether MHFA training leads to better outcomes in the recipients of aid remains to be further explored. Trial registration ACTRN12612000390886 , registered retrospectively 5/4/2012. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-019-2085-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Long-term effects of Youth Mental Health First Aid training: randomized controlled trial with 3-year follow-up

“…As with earlier follow-ups, there remained a lack of statistical power at 3-year follow-up. Even though there were higher rates of adolescents with mental health problems at 3-year follow-up (reflecting the higher risk period of middle-to-late adolescence), there was more attrition compared to 1-and 2-year follow-up [14]. There were few improvements in study outcomes observable 3 years after training, apart from parents' knowledge of youth mental health problems and adolescents' perceptions of general social support from their parents.…”

“…Study methods have been described in detail elsewhere [14] but are briefly described here. The study was an RCT with participants randomized to Youth MHFA (YMHFA) or Red Cross Provide First Aid (PFA) training.…”

“…As reported in Morgan et al [14], we required a sample size of 990 parent-adolescent dyads (495 per group). Based on 12-month prevalence data [26,27], this sample size would include 128 adolescents with a mental health problem (64 in each group).…”

“…The use of an active control condition (physical first aid training) meant that effects could be assessed several years after training, which is impossible to do with a waitlist control design. We have already reported outcomes from the trial at 1-year and 2-year follow-up [14], which showed improvements in mental health literacy in training recipients relative to the control. For example, increased parental knowledge about youth mental health problems (d = 0.43 at 1-year and d = 0.26 at 2-year), and increased confidence to help a young person (d = 0.26) and intentions to provide effective support (d = 0.22) at 1-year follow-up.…”

Creation of consensus recommendations for collaborative practice in the Malaysian psychiatric system: a modified Delphi study

“…Communities play a large role in mental health care in lower and middle income countries [60,61] and partnership with communities is a strategy that has been successfully employed in Malaysia to improve mental health [62]. Training community members to provide initial help to people with mental disorders helps improve confidence, intention to help others and helping behaviours, however it is not yet clear whether these programs help improve mental health outcomes in people with mental health problems [63][64][65]. A systematic review of religious interventions concluded that they were effective [66] and in Malaysia religious professionals and traditional healers sometimes refer patients to services if they feel that the problem is a mental health concern, rather than a spiritual issue [19].…”