E Bethan Davies|Emmeline Beever|Cris Glazebrook
A pilot randomised controlled study of the Mental Health First Aid eLearning course with UK medical students
Institute of Mental Health|University of Nottingham|Queen's Medical Centre|University of Nottingham|Institute of Mental Health|University of Nottingham
medical students face many barriers seeking professional help mental health including stigma relating mental illness often prefer seek support advice fellow students improving medical students mental health literacy abilities support someone experiencing mental health problem could reduce barriers help seeking improve mental health population mental health first aid mhfa evidencebased intervention designed improve mental health literacy ability respond someone mental health problem pilot randomised controlled trial aims evaluate mhfa elearning course uk medical students fiftyfive medical students randomised receive six weeks access mhfa elearning course n 27 noaccess control group n 28 groups completed baseline prerandomisation followup six weeks postrandomisation online questionnaires measuring recognition mental health problem mental health first aid intentions confidence help friend experiencing mental health problem stigmatising attitudes course feedback gathered followup participants lost followup mhfa group 519 compared control 214 intentiontotreat itt nonitt analyses showed mhfa intervention improved mental health first aid intentions p 001 decreased stigmatising attitudes towards people mental health problems p 04 itt analysis found significant group x time interaction confidence help friend nonitt analysis show intervention improved confidence help friend mental health problems p 001 improved mental health knowledge p 003 medical students intervention group reported greater number actual mental health first aid actions followup p 006 feedback mhfa course generally positive participants stating helped improve knowledge confidence help someone pilot study demonstrated potential mhfa elearning course improve uk medical students mental health first aid skills confidence help friend stigmatising attitudes could useful supporting others mental health studying future healthcare careers retrospectively registered isrctn11219848