La Source, School of Nursing Sciences, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 11;20(2):1303. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021303.
Half to three-fourths of mental disorders appear during adolescence or young adulthood, and the treatment gap is mainly due to lack of knowledge, lack of perceived need, and the stigmatization of mental illness. The aims of this study were to implement and evaluate a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training program among undergraduates. Participants were second-year students from two universities in the French-speaking region of Switzerland ( = 107), who were randomly assigned to an intervention group ( = 53) or control group ( = 54). The intervention group received a 12-h MHFA course. Online questionnaires were completed before the intervention (T0), and both 3 months (T1) and 12 months (T2) after the intervention in order to evaluate the participants' mental health knowledge, recognition of schizophrenia, and attitudes and behaviors towards mental illness. We used Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) to examine the effects of intervention over time. After the MHFA course, the intervention group showed significantly increased basic knowledge and confidence helping others with mental illness and reduced stigmatization at both T1 and T2 compared to their baseline scores and compared to control groups. This suggests that the MHFA training program is effective and has significant short-term and long-term impacts, in terms of enhancing basic knowledge about mental health and improving attitudes towards mental illness among undergraduate students.
精神障碍有一半到四分之三出现在青少年或成年早期，治疗差距主要是由于缺乏知识、缺乏感知需求以及对精神疾病的污名化。本研究的目的是在大学生中实施和评估心理健康急救（MHFA）培训计划。参与者是瑞士法语区两所大学的二年级学生（n=107），他们被随机分配到干预组（n=53）或对照组（n=54）。干预组接受了 12 小时的 MHFA 课程。在干预前（T0）、干预后 3 个月（T1）和 12 个月（T2）进行在线问卷调查，以评估参与者的心理健康知识、对精神分裂症的认识以及对精神疾病的态度和行为。我们使用广义估计方程（GEE）来检验干预随时间的效果。在 MHFA 课程之后，与基线分数相比，与对照组相比，干预组在 T1 和 T2 时均表现出显著增加的基本心理健康知识和帮助有精神疾病的人的信心，以及减少对精神疾病的污名化。这表明，MHFA 培训计划是有效的，具有显著的短期和长期影响，可以提高大学生对心理健康的基本知识，并改善对精神疾病的态度。
