Offering mental health first aid to a person with depression: a Delphi study to re-develop the guidelines published in 2008

Abstract

Background Depressive disorder is ranked as the largest contributor to non-fatal health burden. However, with prompt treatment, outcomes can improve. Family and friends are well placed to recognise the signs of depression and encourage early help seeking. Guidelines about how members of the public can provide mental health first aid to someone who is experiencing depression were developed in 2008. A Delphi study was conducted to re-develop these guidelines to ensure they are current and reflect best practice. Methods A survey was developed using the 2008 depression mental health first aid guidelines and a systematic search of grey and academic literature. The questionnaire contained items about providing mental health first aid to a person with depression. These items were rated by two international expert panels – a lived experience panel (consumers and carers) and a professional panel. Results Three hundred and fifty-two items were rated by 53 experts (36 with lived experience and 17 professionals) according to whether they should be included in the revised guidelines. There were 183 items that met the criteria to be included in the updated guidelines. Conclusions This re-development has added detail to the previous version of the guidelines, giving more guidance on the role of the first aider and allowing for a more nuanced approach to providing first aid to someone with depression. These guidelines are available to the public and will be used to update the Mental Health First Aid courses. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40359-019-0310-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cultural adaptation of the mental health first aid guidelines for depression used in English-speaking countries for China: a Delphi expert consensus study

“…However, the correlation coefficient observed in this study is much smaller compared to those reported in similar studies in English-speaking countries. For example, Bond et al reported a correlation coefficient of 0.95 between panels of professionals and consumers in a Delphi study to re-develop the mental health first aid guidelines for depression [26]. Such difference is likely to be due to the truncated range, as the statements with low endorsement in the English-language questionnaire were not included in the Chinese questionnaire.…”

“…There are many methods that may be used as part of a cultural adaptation process for behavioural health interventions [48]. The Delphi method offers a systematic way of doing this and is particularly appropriate for this study, because it parallels the process used to inform the English-language guidelines [26]. There is now a need for further exploration of how the adapted guidelines, and the associated training, might be implemented in the Chinese context, in consideration of its mental health care system, existing workforce and cultural values.…”

Cultural adaptation of the mental health first aid guidelines for depression used in English-speaking countries for China: a Delphi expert consensus study

“…By using this method to develop an evidence base to guide decisions, policymakers and practitioners can move beyond relying on their own experience and draw on the accumulated experience of a larger, expert group [41]. This method has been widely used in disparate fields [41], including in mental health research, for example in the development of mental health first aid guidelines for English-speaking countries and some LMICs [30,32,34,42].…”

“…The content of the current MHFA training course is based on guidelines for how members of the public might help people with a wide range of mental health problems (e.g. psychosis, depression or trauma) [29][30][31] and crises (e.g. suicide) [32].…”

“…Therefore, we conducted a Delphi expert consensus study to adapt the recently-updated mental health first aid guidelines for depression used in English-speaking countries [30] for China, a country with a very different health system and cultural understanding of mental health [38,39]. It is expected that the adaptation will provide a set of culturally-appropriate statements describing actions that Chinese community members and frontline workers can take to help a person with depression.…”