Supporting Child Mental Health: Evaluating a training program for parents, carers, teachers and educators of primary school aged children

Brief Name: Supporting Child Mental Health: A comprehensive program for teaching adults to learn how to provide mental health first aid to children aged 5-12 years. What/Materials and procedures Intervention Content The program covers the topics of: (i) Child mental health and mental health problems in childhood, (ii) How to provide mental health first aid to support a child who is developing a mental health problem (internalising or externalising problems), or a child who is experiencing a mental health crisis (dangerous aggression or being at risk of self-harm), (iii) levels of appropriate help for child mental health problems and crises, and (iv) a child’s support system and collaborating with responsible adults in a child’s life. The guidebook, along with the accompanying eLearning modules and live training sessions are designed to be a comprehensive program for adults to learn how to provide mental health first aid to support children aged 5-12 years, constituting 8-hours total training time. Program Materials The intervention is delivered across a blended format with 4-hours of self-paced eLearning and 4-hours of live group sessions provided by an experienced trained Instructor. The eLearning modules are accessed through University of Melbourne’s Learning Management System (Canvas software; a digital web-enabled content management platform) and the live sessions are delivered by a trained Instructor according to a standardized presentation manual. The intervention program also includes: 202-page guidebook, accessed as an electronic book through the LMS Reflective Journal – 55 A4 pages of written activities for use during the eLearning and live sessions. Instructor Presentation Manual – 81 A4 pages Viewing of short films produced specifically for this program. A certificate of completion if requested for supporting professional development hours. The guidebook, eLearning modules, and live training session are purpose-built for this study and are not publicly available resources. Program Procedures Participants are emailed a link from the LMS software and asked to register as a learner. Once they register, they are granted access to the SCMH eLearning online course as a participant. The eLearning modules are structured as 8 sequential 30-minute lessons that each conclude with quiz constituting 5 multiple choice questions. Participants cannot move on to the next lesson in sequence until the prior lesson and associated quiz is completed. Upon completing all 8 lessons, participants are provided with a link to an online survey which confirms their enrolment in the second training component - the live group session delivery. For the live sessions, a trained Instructor provides 4 sessions each of 1 hour length to groups of between 6-12 participants. Who/Intervention providers There are currently 8 trained instructors who can deliver the SCMH Intervention across Australia. Instructors are selected based on their knowledge of child mental health, parenting and/or primary school education setting. All instructors have professional qualifications in mental health, including as clinical psychologists, school counsellors, mental health nurses or crisis help line counsellors. Before being authorised to deliver the intervention, instructors must undertake the 8-hour SCMH training program, then receive 10 additional hours of training via virtual ‘Communities of Practice’ 5x 2-hour group sessions, facilitated by the program authors and research team. In one of these sessions the training Instructor must present one of the live group sessions to the trainee Instructor group, to be considered competent to deliver the intervention to trial participants. How/Mode of delivery The eLearning modules are delivered as a digital online self-paced resource hosted by the University of Melbourne learning management system - CANVAS. The live sessions can be delivered either face-to-face in a classroom setting, or virtually via videoconferencing (e.g. Zoom or MS Teams). Where/location Primary schools in Australia where the State or Territory Department of Education provides approval for Government Schools to host the research Independent primary schools in Australia where the Principal or Academic Board provide approval to host the research Catholic Schools in Australia who teach students in Foundation/Preparation/Kindergarten through to Grade 6 and the Catholic Education Office as provided approval for schools within their region/diocese to host the research Community clubs and organisations who provide education services to children, including Outside School Hours Care, Sporting, Fitness or Athletic clubs, language, art or music programs or community-based programs catering for children of primary school age (5-12 years) To individual parents and educators of primary school children aged 5-12 years located across Australia who will be individually randomised and receive the program in a wholly virtual delivery. When/Number of times, duration, intensity, or dose Blended delivery with 8 modules (4-hours) self-paced eLearning and 4 sessions (4 hours) of live group sessions provided by a trained Instructor, according to a structured facilitation manual. Participants must complete at least one eLearning module before attending the live sessions. Participants are encouraged to complete as many eLearning modules as possible before attending the live sessions and email and sms reminders are sent for this purposes. However, not all 8 lessons need to be completed prior to attending the live sessions. Dosage of eLearning modules is recorded prior to attendance at live sessions. The live sessions can be delivered as 4x sessions on 1x day, 2x sessions across 2x days or 1x session across 4 days. The structure of the live sessions will depend on the preference and availability of the training group. Participants must complete the live sessions in the same standard sequence. If one session is missed, participants are not allowed to progress onto the next session until the missed session is completed. This may require participants to move from one training group to another, but never from intervention to waitlist arm, nor vice versa. Dosage of live sessions is recorded via an attendance list completed by the Instructor. Participants are expected to complete all components of the intervention within a minimum of 2-3 weeks and a maximum of 8 weeks. Tailoring The elearning modules have content that is specific to parent/carers and for educators/teachers. Participants may choose to focus on the content that is more relevant for them as one of the two audiences, or they may choose to engage with all of the eLearning material. The live sessions are delivered to parent/carer and educator groups separately so that the Instructor can tailor the group activities specifically for (i) parent/carers who are more likely to provide mental health first aid to support a child in a home setting, and more likely to initiate help-seeking from a mental health professional for a child, (ii) educators who are more likely to provide mental health first aid to support a child in a classroom or community service setting and more likely to need to follow employment policy and procedure relating to seeking involvement from specialist staff with responsibility for child wellbeing and parent or treatment staff liaison. Although the scenarios and framing of the group activities are tailored according to the audience group, the learning outcomes and skills discussed in the activities are the same for both groups. Instructors follow a standard procedure for tailoring the delivery of the live sessions to participants who have accessibility needs, including hard of hearing, low vision, mobility impairments, chronic illness or psychosocial requirements. However, the learning outcomes and content covered remain the same for all participants. Instructors follow a standard procedure for tailoring the live sessions to groups who are already known to each other (e.g. a group of teaching staff from one primary school) vs groups who are not known to each other (e.g. a national or state/territory based organisation delivering community-based services to children who have staff attending virtual live session group delivery from the organisation’s different locations across Australia; like the YMCA). How well/Fidelity measurement eLearning modules are always accessed in the same standard sequence and deviations in sequence are not possible and therefore not assessed. Fidelity of live session delivery will be measured using a program content check-list, derived from the structured presentation manual used by Instructors. Fidelity check-lists will be completed by a research staff member viewing live group sessions, or where this is not possible, by the Instructor after the delivery of each of the 4 sessions.