Mental illness poses a challenge to public mental health services because of its high prevalence, symptom chronicity, and impacts on patients and society. Although there is a huge amount of need to serve people with mental illness, there is insufficient manpower. There is much empirical evidence to support the volunteer programs for people with mental illness. However, the literature on hybrid volunteer training is mainly focused on teaching and learning in education, and the effectiveness of the hybrid volunteer training in Hong Kong is under-studied. Therefore, The present study aims to compare the efficacy of hybrid volunteer training with the wait-list control group. We hypothesize that (1) participants who receive hybrid volunteer training will increase their self-efficacy of volunteering after the intervention as compared with the wait-list controls; (2) participants from hybrid volunteer training will have better mental health knowledge and less mental health-related stigmatized beliefs and behavior after the intervention as compared with the wait-list controls.~The volunteer training will consist of a 6-module online course, followed by 5 face-to-face courses, incorporating the key volunteer training components, including Keyes theory, bio-psycho-social model, stress bucket model, recovery model and CHIME model. Each module will consist of the key volunteer training component presented in in written or video format. Materials will be presented interactively to facilitate engagement.
As the effectiveness of the hybrid volunteer training in Hong Kong is under-studied, this experimental study aims to develop a hybrid learning mode of volunteer training that increase volunteering-related self-efficacy and its associated outcomes among volunteer. In particular, this study compares the efficacy of hybrid volunteer training with the wait-list control group.~The volunteer training will consist of a 6-module online course, followed by 5 face-to-face courses. Each module will consist of the key volunteer training component presented in in written or video format. Materials will be presented interactively to facilitate engagement.