Mental Health First Aid Research Projects
MHFA course evaluation
Since it began in 2000, Mental Health First Aid Australia has been committed to evaluating its training programs using rigorous, scientific studies. A number of these evaluations were conducted by MHFA or by the Population Mental Health Group at the University of Melbourne. Evaluation studies have also been conducted by independent organisations.
These evaluations consistently show that MHFA training is associated with improved knowledge of mental illnesses and their treatments, knowledge of appropriate first aid strategies, and confidence in providing first aid to individuals with mental illness, benefits which are maintained over time. Some studies have also shown improved mental health in those who attend the training, decreases in stigmatising attitudes and increases in the amount and type of support provided to others.
Read more on research evaluating MHFA course research informing MHFA course curriculum taking a course
Now recruiting
Hide Evaluation of the MHFA course for gambling problemsThis is an evaluation of the Mental Health First Aid for Gambling Problems
course. Knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and confidence in providing assistance to a person with gambling problems will be assessed before the course, and immediately and six months after the course. If you are an Instructor of this course, please contact
Dr Kathy Bond to discuss assisting with recruitment.
Hide Evaluation of the MHFA course for NSSIThis is an evaluation of the Mental Health First Aid for Non-suicidal Self-injury
(NSSI) course. Knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and confidence in providing
assistance to a person who is engaging in NSSI will be assessed before the
course, and immediately and six months after the course. If you are an Instructor of this course, please contact
Dr Kathy Bond to discuss assisting with recruitment.
Hide Evaluation of the MHFA course for the older personThis is an evaluation of the Older Person Mental Health First Aid course.
Knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and confidence in providing assistance to an
older person with mental health problems will be assessed before the course,
and immediately and six months after the course. If you are an Instructor of this course, please contact
Dr Kathy Bond to discuss assisting with recruitment.
Current projects
Hide TeenAid: A Cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate first aid training for teenagers
This is a cluster randomised controlled trial of the Teen MHFA course with secondary high school students in Years 10-12 in Victorian secondary schools. This study is a collaboration between MHFA Australia, the Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global health, University of Melbourne and Australian Red Cross First Aid training program. Funding is from a Nation Health and Medical Research Council.
Find out more.
Hide Evaluation of the Mental Health First Aid Conversations about Suicide course
This is an evaluation of the Mental Health First Aid Conversations about Suicide course. Knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and confidence in providing assistance to a suicidal person will be assessed before the course, and immediately and six months after the course. If you are an Instructor of this course, please contact
Dr Kathy Bond to discuss assisting with recruitment.
Hide Development of training to improve capacity of community to prevent youth suicide
This project aims to develop and evaluate suicide prevention gatekeeper training courses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and for non-Aboriginal frontline workers, which will empower them to take action to reduce the risk of suicide and self-injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. More specific aims are:
To carry out Delphi expert consensus studies with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide experts to establish best practice guidelines on how to provide mental health first aid to an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander young person who is at risk of suicide or self-injury.
To develop gatekeeper training courses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and for non-Aboriginal frontline workers based on the best practice guidelines.
To train the existing national network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA) Instructors in the new courses.
To evaluate uptake of the new training in terms of roll-out by AMHFA Instructors and factors associated with successful roll-out.
To evaluate the impact of the training on community members and frontline workers who work with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander youth in terms of knowledge of how to assist, increased confidence to assist, stigmatizing attitudes and increased first-aid behaviours.
To communicate the methodology, the content of the courses, and the results of the evaluation of the program to advocates, representative agencies and ministerial appointed groups that may be involved in suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
This study is being carried out in a partnership between MHFA Australia and the Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne with funding from an NHMRC targeted research grant.
