Training Church Leaders in Mental Health First Aid

Training Community Members in Mental Health First Aid

The purpose of this study is to train Church Leaders and other community members in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), which is an evidence-based public mental health education program. MHFA has been found to improve people's recognition of emotional and mental health challenges and to increase people's confidence in providing help to others. Information about MHFA can be accessed at http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org.

MHFA consists an 8-hour training program in which participants will be provided a manual, learn the signs and symptoms of common mental health problems, and learn a 5-step action plan to help someone in an emotional crisis.

Participants ware recruited from faith-based organizations (i.e., churches), health care organizations (i.e., hospitals), and other community based organizations. There will be no treatment directly provided as part of this study.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Stigma
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Mental Health First Aid

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 324

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10032
      • New York State Psychiatric Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

This protocol primarily targets African Americans who live in Central Harlem, New York.

Community members will also include church leaders and lay participants from local churches, health care organizations, and other community-based organizations. This will include any adult who meets study eligibility criteria and consents to take the MHFA training at one of our approved study sites. Examples of community study sites are First Corinthian Baptist Church, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and the Columbia University Wellness Center

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Fluent in English
• Able to provide signed formed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any circumstances limiting participant's ability to complete the 8-hour training
• Inability to provide informed consent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Confidence in Providing Help at 3 months	After reading a clinical vignette that describes a person with either Schizophrenia or Major Depression, participants are asked "How confident do you feel in helping this person?" Possible responses are on a 5-point Likert scale with 1 = Not at all confident and 5 = Extremely confident	3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline in Stigma at 3 months	Personal and Perceived Stigma Scale. It is a 14-item measure that assesses stigmatizing attitudes. Questions are on a 5-point Likert scale with 1 = Strongly Agree and 5 = Strongly Disagree with scores ranging from 14 to 70. A higher score indicates greater stigma A clinical vignette, describing either a case with Schizophrenia or Major Depression, is presented. Participants are asked questions about social stigma, which assesses what participants' perceptions of people in their community, and personal stigma, which assesses the participants' personal beliefs.	3 months
Change from Baseline in Functional Health Status at 3 months	The Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short Form Survey Instrument (SF-12) is a validated functional health status assessment that assesses health status over the preceding 4 weeks. Measures include; General Health: 5-point Likert scale with 1 = Excellent and 5 = Poor; Physical Functioning: 3-point Likert scale with 1 = Yes, Limited a lot and 3 = No, Not Limited at all; Role limitations resulting from physical health problems: Possible responses are 'Yes' or 'No'; Role limitations resulting from emotional problems: Possible responses are 'Yes' or 'No'; Bodily Pain: 5-point Likert scale with 1 = Not at All and 5 = Extremely; Vitality (energy and fatigue):; Mental Health: 6-point Likert scale with 1 = All of the Time and 6 = None of the Time; Social Functioning: 6-point Likert scale with 1 = All of the Time and 6 = None of the Time Total Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating poorer health	3 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Semi structured Interviews at 3 months	Semi-structured interviews are conducted with participants either over the telephone, in-person at their church or at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The purpose of the interview is to get examples of how participants utilized the skills in Mental Health First Aid training, what action items they completed, and how the training could be improved for use among other communities	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sidney H Hankerson, MD, MBA, New York State Psychiatric Institute

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Describes the Mental Health First Aid intervention
• Describes the Community Advisory Board created by Dr. Hankerson's NIMH-funded K23 Career Development Award. This Community Advisory Board selected Mental Health First Aid as the study intervention.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 27, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 31, 2020
• Study Completion (Anticipated): June 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 13, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): August 28, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 29, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2021
• Last Verified: March 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Disparities
• Other Study ID Numbers: 7224

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No