The Mind Your Mate program: A school-based randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of combined classroom lessons and a mobile app peer support prevention intervention.

Mind your Mate program: The Mind your Mate program is a school-based, universal intervention which aims to prevent mental health and substance use problems in adolescents. The intervention was developed through an iterative process with youth and education and health stakeholders and leverages a peer-based model to promote peer support and prevent mental health and substance use problems. The Mind your Mate Program is comprised of a classroom program and companion smartphone application (app), the Mind Your Mate app. The classroom program is comprised of four, 40-minute classes delivered over four consecutive weeks. Classroom lessons consist of a 20-minute online cartoon component followed by a 20-minute classroom activity. Classroom lessons follow a group of Australian high school students navigating daily life and includes content on mental health literacy, ways to support peers and encourages help-seeking. The lessons will be facilitated by the regular classroom teacher but delivered online and include an invitation for students to download the companion app. Classroom lessons may be viewed by students on their individual devices or presented to the whole class together. Classroom activities, including individual worksheets, group discussions and class brainstorming, aims to reinforce information provided in the cartoon lessons and provides students an opportunity to collaborate with their peers and practice and apply teachings. Intervention content has been mapped to relevant Australian and state curricula. All classroom materials will be housed and accessible on the study website. At the end of the first classroom lesson, students will be directed to download and work through the app outside of school hours, as needed, over the following 12 months. The app contains self-directed learning through online (in app) modules, each approximately 5-10 minutes (including mental health psychoeducation, substance use literacy and norms, harm minimisation strategies and communication skills to check in with friends) and suggested activities (for example, checking in with friends, testing knowledge via quizzes and tracking mood), and self-care tasks (for example, drawing, playing an instrument or sport) over a 12-month period. Teachers do not require any additional training to deliver the program however, they will be provided with lesson summaries and curriculum mapping for review at their own discretion. It is expected that Year 9 and Year 10 Health and Physical Education teachers allocated to the intervention condition will introduce the program during their regular classes in Term 1, 2027. Teachers in schools allocated to the intervention condition will be provided an implementation logbook to record fidelity and any related barriers or aids to implementation as well as a health education logbook to record any other relevant mental health or substance use content delivered during the trial period. Students in schools allocated to the intervention condition will be asked to complete a survey on their use of the app and provide feedback at 12-months (~10 minutes).