Svensson Bengt, Hansson Lars
Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 25;9(6):e100911. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100911. eCollection 2014.
According to a recent report from the European Brain Council and the European Colleague of Neuropsychopharmacology the one year prevalence of some kind of mental disorder is around 27% among the adult population in Europe. Research has shown a lack of mental health literacy in the population in general and it is thus important to find ways to improve the public's knowledge and skills to provide first hand support to people with mental disorders. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a training program that has shown positive changes in knowledge and helping behavior. This study investigates if MHFA training in a Swedish context provides a sustained improvement in knowledge about mental disorders, a better ability to be helpful in contacts with people who are ill and if it changes attitudes in a positive direction.
The introduction of the training program was made in accordance with the constructor's instructions. Participants were mainly public sector employees from a county in the west of Sweden. The study was a randomized controlled trial with an experiment group (n = 199) and a control group (n = 207) placed on a waiting list during a 6-month follow-up. A two-year follow-up was conducted for participants (n = 155) from both the intervention and waiting list group who had completed the training and during the follow-up been in contact with persons with mental disorders. The intervention group improved in knowledge as well as in confidence in providing help for someone in need. The two-year follow-up showed that the improvements were to a great extent maintained.
Mental Health First Aid might raise the level of awareness of mental disorders and have an influence on the number of people who can receive professional treatment for their problems.
根据欧洲脑科学理事会和欧洲神经精神药理学学会最近的一份报告，在欧洲成年人口中，某种精神障碍的一年患病率约为27%。研究表明，总体人群中缺乏心理健康素养，因此找到提高公众知识和技能的方法，以便为精神障碍患者提供第一手支持非常重要。心理健康急救（MHFA）是一项培训计划，已显示出在知识和帮助行为方面有积极变化。本研究调查在瑞典背景下的MHFA培训是否能持续提高对精神障碍的认识，在与患者接触时提供帮助的能力是否有所提升，以及是否能朝着积极方向改变态度。
培训计划按照建设者的说明进行引入。参与者主要是瑞典西部一个县的公共部门员工。该研究是一项随机对照试验，实验组（n = 199）和对照组（n = 207）在6个月的随访期间被列入等待名单。对来自干预组和等待名单组且已完成培训并在随访期间与精神障碍患者有过接触的参与者（n = 155）进行了为期两年的随访。干预组在知识以及为有需要的人提供帮助的信心方面都有所提高。两年的随访表明，这些改善在很大程度上得以维持。
心理健康急救可能会提高对精神障碍的认识水平，并对能够因自身问题接受专业治疗的人数产生影响。
