Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Prof Anthony Jorm
ORCID ID
Contact details
Centre for Mental Health Research
Australian National University
Canberra
0200
Australia
+61 2 61258414
anthony.jorm@anu.edu.au
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
N/A
Study information
Scientific title
Acronym
Study hypothesis
A Mental Health First Aid course has been developed which trains members of the public in how to give initial help in mental health crisis situations and to support people developing mental health problems. This course has previously been evaluated in a randomized controlled trial in a workplace setting and found to produce a number of positive effects. However, this was an efficacy trial under relatively ideal conditions. The present trial is an effectiveness trial in which the course was given under more typical conditions. The hypotheses were that individuals trained in Mental Health First Aid, when compared to wait-list controls, would have increased knowledge of mental disorders and their treatments, decreased social distance, increased confidence in providing help, and that they would provide greater help to people experiencing mental health problems. The findings were that training produced significantly greater recognition of the disorders, increased agreeement with health professionals about which interventions are likely to be helpful, decreased social distance, increased confidence in providing help to others, and an increase in help actually provided. There was no change in the number of people with mental health problems that trainees had contact with nore in the percentage advising someone to seek professional help.
Ethics approval
Not provided at time of registration
Study design
Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Not specified
Trial type
Not Specified
Patient information sheet
Condition
Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Intervention
Participants are randomly assigned to receive either the Mental Health First Aid course or no intervention. (The control group receives the course once the trial is finished). The Mental Health First Aid course trains members of the public to provide initial help to people in mental health crisis situations and in the early stages of a mental disorder.
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Specified
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
Recognition of mental disorders in vignettes, agreeement with health professionals about which interventions are likely to be helpful for the persons portrayed in the vignettes, social distance from people with mental disorders, confidence in providing help to others, contact with people with mental disorders, amount and type of help actually provided.
Secondary outcome measures
Not provided at time of registration
Overall trial start date
01/10/2002
Overall trial end date
31/10/2003
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Members of the public living in a rural area of Australia. The trial examines the ability of participants to provide initial help to people who have a mental disorder.
There were 753 participants, 416 in the intervention group and 337 in the control group. These were members of the community, not patients.
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Not Specified
Gender
Not Specified
Target number of participants
753
Participant exclusion criteria
Not provided at time of registration
Recruitment start date
01/10/2002
Recruitment end date
31/10/2003
Locations
Countries of recruitment
Australia
Trial participating centre
Centre for Mental Health Research
Canberra
0200
Australia
Sponsor information
Organisation
Australian Centre for Mental Health Research
Sponsor details
Australian National University
Canberra
0200
Australia
+61 2 61258414
anthony.jorm@anu.edu.au
Sponsor type
Research council
Website
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
New South Wales Department of Health,
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Funder name
National Health and Medical Research Council
Alternative name(s)
NHMRC
Funding Body Type
government organisation
Funding Body Subtype
Federal/National Government
Location
Australia
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
Publication citations
-
Results
Jorm AF, Kitchener BA, O'Kearney R, Dear KB, Mental health first aid training of the public in a rural area: a cluster randomized trial [ISRCTN53887541]., BMC Psychiatry, 2004, 4, 33, doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-4-33.