Sharyn Burns|Gemma Crawford|Jonathan Hallett|Kristen Hunt|HuiJun Chih|P. J. Matt Tilley
What’s wrong with John? a randomised controlled trial of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training with nursing students
Curtin University|Curtin University|Curtin University|Curtin University|Curtin University|Curtin University
prevalence mental health problems found higher among university students compared nonstudent peers nursing students particular face range additional stressors may impact undergraduate performance careers mental health first aid mhfa aims increase mental health literacy reduce stigma may positively impact student population paper describes mhfa randomised controlled trial targeting nursing students large australian university study aimed measure impact mhfa course mental health literacy mental health first aid intentions confidence helping someone mental health problem stigmatising attitudes including social distance participants first year nursing students n 181 randomly allocated intervention n 92 control n 89 group intervention group participants received standardised mhfa course nursing students online selfreport questionnaires completed three time intervals baseline one week prior intervention t1 n 140 post intervention t2 n 120 two months post intervention t3 n 109 measures included demographics mental health knowledge recognition depression confidence helping mental health first aid intentions stigmatising attitudes including social distance repeated measures anova computed measure impact time t1 t2 t3 group intervention control outcome variables significant improvement among intervention compared control group participants across three time periods knowledge scores p 0001 confidence helping p 0001 mental health first aid intentions p 0001 total personal stigma p 005 personal dangerousunpredictable stigma p 005 social distance p 005 scores mhfa useful training embed university courses potential enhance mental health literacy reduce stigmatising attitudes social distance course particular salience nursing health science students broader benefits general university population considered opportunities accordingly explored students complete course australian new zealand clinical trials registry actrn12614000861651 retrospectively registered 11 august 2014