2.6. Intervention
anxiety, acute stress reactions, panic, acute psychotic behaviors, thoughts/attempts, depressive symptoms, psychotic disorders
DISORDERS
The MHFA/ensa program is a 12-h face-to-face training program delivered in four sessions of three hours each across four consecutive weeks by two accredited MHFA/ensa instructors. The class was administered in small groups with a maximum of 10–15 students. The program included didactic lectures and “role playing” to teach students how to recognize and react to the signs and symptoms of mental health illness. Participants enrolled in the intervention group received an accompanying manual with content that covered helping people in mental health crises and/or the early stages of mental health problems. The mental health problems addressed during the training session included depressive symptoms, anxiety, psychotic disorders, and substance use disorders. The mental health crisis situations included suicidal thoughts/attempts and behaviors, acute stress reactions, panic attacks, and acute psychotic behaviors [The intervention group attended the MHFA/ensa training program and answered an online questionnaire at three time-points (at baseline, 3 months after the intervention, and after 12 months).Each session had two instructors who worked together to teach all four sessions over the four weeks. The intervention period took place from October 28 to the end of December 2019, depending on the students’ enrolment dates. Training sessions were offered at the end of the academic day, after students had completed their usual academic schedule.Students’ academic schedule was not disrupted by MHFA/ensa training, which they attended after their usual class schedule voluntarily.