Teen Mental Health First Aid
Equips secondary school students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to recognise, understand and respond to a friend or classmate experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis.
INTERVENE EARLY
Recognise the warning signs of mental health problems in a friend or classmate.
OFFER SUPPORT
Learn the skills to have an open, supportive conversation about mental health.
RESPOND IN A CRISIS
Respond across a range of crisis situations where a friend or classmate may be at risk of harm.
REDUCE STIGMA
Reduce stigma and increase support for a friend or classmate experiencing and living with mental health problems.
The Teen Mental Health First Aid course teaches students how to provide initial peer-to-peer support to a friend or classmate who may be experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis, until professional help is received or the crisis resolves.
Students learn about the signs and symptoms of common mental health problems in adolescents, how to recognise and respond to an emerging or worsening mental health problem, and the interventions and supports available.
Using a practical, evidence-based action plan, students learn how to approach a friend or classmate they are concerned about and initiate a conversation about those concerns. Students also learn how to offer initial support and information, how to encourage the person to seek professional help, and when to seek the help of a trusted adult.
This course is tailored to students in Years 7–9 and students in Years 10–12 to ensure age-appropriate content is delivered.
This course is recognised by Suicide Prevention Australia as a safe, high-quality, and effective suicide prevention program. Learn more.
Watch this short video to learn more about our course.
Course information
Delivery format
Face-to-Face
Duration
3 classroom sessions
Take the next step
Why MHFA?
Evidence-based: All Mental Health First Aid courses are based on guidelines that are informed by people with lived experience, their caregivers, and mental health professionals.
Rigorously evaluated: Evaluations consistently show that Mental Health First Aid training improves participants’ knowledge of mental illnesses and their treatments, and confidence in providing mental health first aid to individuals.
Skills-based: Teaches the practical skills, knowledge, and confidence to make a difference.
Internationally recognised: Over 6 million people trained in Mental Health First Aid across 25 countries.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
- Recognise the signs and symptoms of mental health problems commonly experienced in young people
- Know when and how to seek the support of a trusted adult
- Use an evidence-based action plan to initiate a mental health first aid conversation
- Assess for a range of crisis situations and provide initial support
- Understand the prevalence and impact of mental illnesses, risk factors and treatments and supports available
- Know the barriers to help seeking and how to overcome these.
Eligibility
Suitable for secondary school students in Years 7-9 and 10-12. It can also be delivered in other settings such as sports clubs, scouts, and guides.
The course must be delivered to the entire cohort. For example, to every Year 10 student or every member of a team.
Teen MHFA can only be delivered when a minimum of 10% of the supporting adults e.g., school staff, volunteers, etc have completed Youth MHFA training.
See Training Delivery for more information.
Course Content
This course covers developing mental health problems and crisis situations. Students learn how to recognise when a friend or classmate is developing a mental health problem and have a supportive conversation, and how to identify signs of a crisis such as suicidal thoughts. The course focuses on knowing when and how to seek the support of a trusted adult.
The learning is supported by videos that tell the lived experience stories of teens who have experienced mental illness.
Duration & Format
The course is delivered via 3 face-to-face classroom sessions.
All sessions are led by an MHFA trained and Licensed Instructor.
Accreditation
There is no accreditation for this course.
Course Fees
Mental Health First Aid Australia does not employ the Instructors that it trains and licenses. Therefore, each Licensed MHFA Instructor has the autonomy and flexibility to set their own course fees. Course fees do vary for many reasons which can include course type, individual Instructor qualifications and credentials, course venue, course location (metropolitan vs regional locations), course catering and any course participant subsidies that may be available as a result of a community grant.
I’ve noticed that everyone is more alert [since the training] – they look out for warning signs more and make sure you’re okay.
We were shown stories by people who actually went through mental health problems – they were teenagers, which is good because we could connect with them more.
It puts young people, and the adults in their lives, at the centre of their own mental health support network, by giving them the skills and knowledge to help those who may not be travelling so well.
