Laura Hart|Amy J. Morgan|Alyssia Rossetto|Claire Kelly|Andrew Mackinnon|Anthony F. Jorm
Helping adolescents to better support their peers with a mental health problem: A cluster-randomised crossover trial of teen Mental Health First Aid
University of Melbourne|La Trobe University|University of Melbourne|University of Melbourne|Mental Health Australia|University of Melbourne|Black Dog Institute|Prince of Wales Hospital|University of Melbourne|Mental Health Australia
background teen mental health first aid tmhfa classroombased training programme students aged 1518 years improve supportive behaviours towards peers increase mental health literacy reduce stigma research evaluated tmhfa comparing matched emergency physical first aid pfa training programme methods clusterrandomised crossover trial matched four public schools two pairs randomised first receive tmhfa pfa year 10 students subsequent calendar year new year 10 cohort received opposite intervention giving eight cohorts online surveys administered baseline 1 week posttraining measuring quality first aid intentions mental health literacy problem recognition stigmatising beliefs towards fictional adolescents depression suicidality john social anxiety jeanie results total 1942 students randomised 979 received tmhfa 948 received pfa 1605 84 analysed john vignette baseline 1116 69 baseline provided posttraining data primary outcomes helpful first aid intentions towards johnjeanie showed significant groupbytime interactions medium effect sizes favouring tmhfa ds 050058 compared pfa tmhfa students also reported significantly greater improvements confidence supporting peer ds 022037 number adults rated helpful ds 045046 greater reductions stigmatising beliefs ds 012040 harmful first aid intentions towards johnjeanie ds 015041 conclusions tmhfa effective feasible programme increasing supportive first aid intentions mental health literacy adolescents short term tmhfa could widely disseminated positively impact help seeking adolescent mental illness