1 in 5 Australians will have a mental health problem in any given year!
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31 Jan 2012click here to download uploaded/files/client_added/BAPlanningPathways.pdf
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29 Jul 2011
Now avaiable Keeping Sane for Students - see training for schools tab
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18 Mar 2011
a new group of 5 Keeping Sane workshops now avaiable
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24 Feb 2011
Download the Guidelines for depression, suicidal thought, eating disorders,...
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At the National Mental Health Services (TheMHS) Conference in September 2003, the MHFA Program was the Winner of the Mental Health Promotion & Mental Illness Prevention Program Award.
While people often know a lot about common physical health problems, there is widespread ignorance of mental health. This ignorance adds to the stigma of mental health problems and prevents people from seeking help early and seeking the best sort of help. It also prevents people providing appropriate support to colleagues and family members, simply because they do not know how.
In 2000, in order to help people provide initial support for someone with a mental health problem, Betty Kitchener and Professor Tony Jorm from the Centre from the Mental Health Research at the Australian National University developed a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training course. This is a 12-hour course with the aim to improve the mental health literacy of members of the Australian community. Mental Health First Aid courses have now been conducted to approximately 10,000 participants. These participants have been very varied, including members of the general public and people from a broad spectrum of workplaces such as teachers, nurses, case managers, support workers, social welfare staff, employment agencies staff, personnel staff, and staff of many Commonwealth and State Government Departments. Participants receive a course manual and also a certificate at the completion of the course. Those who have completed the course have been very positive about the knowledge and skills they have acquired.
In May 2007, the YOUTH version of Mental Health First Aid was rolled out. This version is aimed directly at adults working primarily with adolscents and covers the added two modules of self harm and eating disorders.
Evaluation & Publications
Mental Health First Aid Research
There is a program of research to evaluate the effects of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training course. So far, the following journal articles have been published.
- Uncontrolled trial with the public, 2001
- Controlled trial in the workplace, 2002
- Controlled trial in a rural area, 2003
- Qualitative study of first aiders experiences, 2004
- Australian National Survey: Looks at Mental Health First Aid Responses of Public, 2003-2004
- MHFA Training: review of evaluation studies, 2005
- Overview of the MHFA Training and Research Program
- The international spread of the MHFA Program, 2007
- Improving mental health capacity in rural communities, 2008
- Description and evaluation of a MHFA program for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, 2009
- Enhancing mental health knowledge and skills of agents working with farmers, 2009
- Evaluation of Mental Health First Aid training with members of the Vietnamese community in Melbourne, Australia
