230 - National Mixed-Methods Internal Program Evaluation of Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally adopted early intervention public mental health education program that teaches individuals how to identify, understand, and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health or substance use challenges. MHFA was brought to the US from Australia in 2008 by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and has since trained over 3 million people. Two of MHFA’s flagship programs include Adult MHFA, which trains adults to assist other adults, and Youth MHFA, which trains adults to assist children and adolescents ages 12-18. Although external evaluations have been conducted on various MHFA programs, there was a high interest in an internal evaluation. The main reasons were the internal staff’s familiarity with the data and measures, the ability to collect larger sample sizes from real-world implementation across the country, and the increased responsiveness toward participant feedback. This mixed-methods program evaluation of the second edition in-person versions of Adult MHFA and Youth MHFA assessed the implementation and the effectiveness of courses held across the United States between October 2022 and July 2023. Pre- and post-evaluations which are collected as part of course implementation were used to capture changes in knowledge, confidence, and attitudes, as well as learners’ responses to the course and their instructor(s). A total of 3,586 Adult MHFA and 2,314 Youth MHFA matched pre-post evaluation data were analyzed. Mental health literacy, perceived ease of using MHFA skills; and intent, confidence, and likelihood to perform MHFA were analyzed using paired sample t tests. Open-ended responses were analyzed using rapid thematic analysis methods. Learners came from diverse geographic areas, ethnic/racial backgrounds, and age groups, and leaned female and with minimal/no previous mental health training. For both courses, mental health literacy, intent, and confidence had statistically significant improvements from pre to post. Qualitative findings revealed that many learners appreciated the activities, materials, and learning about the action plan. A portion of responses suggested opportunities to make changes to materials, the pace of the course, scenarios, or specific content areas. Key recommendations based on evaluation findings were presented internally within MHFA to inform more data-driven and evidence-based curriculum changes.