First Aid Training for Parents of Teenagers - a Randomized Controlled Trial

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The trial is being led by Professor Anthony Jorm from the School of Population Health, Population Mental Health Group at The University of Melbourne. One thousand families in Victoria are invited to participate, consisting of one parent and one teenager (aged between 12-15 years) per family. Parents will be randomly assigned to either a 14 hour Youth Mental Health First Aid course or a 15 hour Australian Red Cross Apply First Aid course. The study will assess whether parents who are trained in physical or mental health first aid respond differently to teenagers who develop physical or mental health problems. Telephone surveys will be conducted on both the parent and teenager before the parent can attend their free training course. Parents will be asked about their knowledge about mental and physical first aid, confidence in supporting a teenager with a mental or physical health problem and self-reported supportive behaviours if their teenager or someone they know develops a mental or physical health problem and perceptions of their own mental health. Teenagers will be asked about their intentions to seek help and actual help-seeking from family and professionals for mental health problems depicted in vignettes, perceptions of support from the parent if the teenager develops a mental health problem and perceptions of their own mental health and general social support from the parent. Both telephone surveys will ask about stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness. One year after the initial telephone survey, parents and teenagers will be asked to complete another telephone survey. This will continue on an annual basis, for possibly up to ten years, subject to funding being available. The project has received ethics approval (ID: 1135679) and is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Fellowship.