Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26788123›Full record

ArticleInternational journal of mental health systems2016

'teen Mental Health First Aid': a description of the program and an initial evaluation.

Laura M Hart, Robert J Mason, Claire M Kelly, Stefan Cvetkovski, Anthony F Jorm

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in International journal of mental health systems, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07195890 (Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Teen Mental Health First Aid in Secondary School Students in Hong Kong), which is not on this map. Cited by 49 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
49citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT07195890 naenrolling by invitationnot on this mapstarted 2025, after this paper: background citation

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Teen Mental Health First Aid in Secondary School Students in Hong Kong

TypeinterventionalSponsorTN Foo Centre for Positive Mental HealthRan2025 to 2026Enrolled250ConditionsHealthy Subjects (HS)ArmsA course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participants
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

49 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Promoting Mental Health Literacy of 13-16-Year-Old Students: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025
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  15. Youth Experiences and Needs of a School-Based Mental Health Training: Implications for School Mental Health Services.The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Laura M HartPopulation Mental Health Group, Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia ; School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Robert J MasonPopulation Mental Health Group, Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Claire M KellyMental Health First Aid, Melbourne, Australia ; School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
Stefan CvetkovskiPopulation Mental Health Group, Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Anthony F JormPopulation Mental Health Group, Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMany adolescents have poor mental health literacy, stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental illness, and lack skills in providing optimal Mental Health First Aid to peers. These could be improved with training to facilitate better social support and increase appropriate help-seeking among adolescents with emerging mental health problems. teen Mental Health First Aid (teen MHFA), a new initiative of Mental Health First Aid International, is a 3 × 75 min classroom based training program for students aged 15-18 years.

methodsAn uncontrolled pilot of the teen MHFA course was undertaken to examine the feasibility of providing the program in Australian secondary schools, to test relevant measures of student knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, and to provide initial evidence of program effects.

resultsAcross four schools, 988 students received the teen MHFA program. 520 students with a mean age of 16 years completed the baseline questionnaire, 345 completed the post-test and 241 completed the three-month follow-up. Statistically significant improvements were found in mental health literacy, confidence in providing Mental Health First Aid to a peer, help-seeking intentions and student mental health, while stigmatising attitudes significantly reduced.

conclusionsteen MHFA appears to be an effective and feasible program for training high school students in Mental Health First Aid techniques. Further research is required with a randomized controlled design to elucidate the causal role of the program in the changes observed.

Indexed as

AdolescentsMental Health First AidMental health literacySecondary schoolStigma

Identifiers

PMID26788123
PMCPMC4717562

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.