Investigating the Impact of the Mental Health First-Aid Training Course in Danish Employees

Effectiveness of Mental Health First-Aid Training in Denmark. A Randomized Controlled Trial With a Six-Month Follow-Up Supplemented With a Qualitative Study

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02334020

Enrollment

538

Registered

2015-01-08

Start date

2013-09-30

Completion date

2015-06-30

Last updated

2015-04-28

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Mental Health Impairment

Keywords

Mental illness, training, support, Mental Health

Brief summary

The purpose of the study is evaluate the effect of the Mental Health First-aid training course on a Danish population of employees.

Detailed description

Background: Studies show a high and growing prevalence of mental disorders in the population worldwide. 25 % of the general population in Europe will during their lifetime experience symptoms related to a mental disorder. The Mental Health First Aid concept (MHFA) was founded in 2000 in Australia by Kitchener and Jorm, in order to provide the population with mental health first aid skills. Objective: The aim of the concept is, through an educational intervention (course), to increase confidence in how to help people suffering from mental health problems. Further, secondary aims are to increase the mental health literacy of the public by increasing knowledge, reduce stigma and initiate more supportive actions leading towards professional help. An investigation of the effect of MHFA offered a Danish population is needed. Design and Methods: The design is a randomized controlled superiority trial, in which 500 participants will be allocated to either the intervention group or the control group. The control group will attend the course six months later, hence waiting list design. From fall 2013 to spring 2014 participants will be educated in Mental Health First-aid following a manualized, two days MHFA course. All the participants will answer a questionnaire at base-line and at 6 months follow-up. The questionnaire is a back-translation of the questionnaire used in Australian trials. The trial will be complemented by a qualitative study, in which focus groups will be carried out. Outcome: The primary outcome measure is increased confidence in help-giving behavior among the participants. Secondary outcome will be increased knowledge of and improved positive attitudes towards people suffering from a mental health problem.

Interventions

OTHERMental Health First-aid

2 days training course providing information on severe mental illness, in order to make people able to support in situations of crisis

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE (Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

people, who in their line of work are in contact with many different individuals

Exclusion criteria

none

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Increased confidence in help-giving behaviour as measured by comparing the intervention group after having attended the training course with the control group. (questionnaire)	6 months	Continuous outcome measures will be analyzed using generalized linear models and dichotomous outcome measures will be analyzed using binary logistic regression. Data will be analysed using IBM SPSS version 22.

Countries

Denmark

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 5, 2026