Impact of mental health first aid training on pharmacy students' knowledge, attitudes and self-reported behaviour: a controlled trial

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of delivering Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training for pharmacy students on their mental health literacy and stigma towards mental illness. Methods: A non-randomized controlled design was used, with all third year pharmacy students at the University of Sydney (n = 272) in 2009 invited to participate in one of two MHFA training courses, each of 12 hours duration. Of these, 174 students applied for MHFA training, of whom 60 were randomly selected and offered MHFA training. Outcome measures that were completed by all participants in the MHFA and non-MHFA groups before and after the MHFA training included an evaluation of mental health literacy, the 7-item social distance scale, and 16 items related to self-reported behaviour. Results: The survey instrument was completed by 258 participants at baseline (59 MHFA and 199 non-MHFA) and 223 participants at follow up (53 MHFA and 170 non-MHFA). The MHFA training improved the participants' ability to correctly identify a mental illness (p = 0.004). There was a significant mean decrease in total social distance of 2.18 (SD 3.35) p < 0.001 for the MHFA group, indicating less stigmatizing attitudes. There were improvements in recognition of helpful interventions with participants' views becoming more concordant with health professional views about treatments for depression (p = 0.009) and schizophrenia (p = 0.08), and participants were significantly more confident (p < 0.01) to provide pharmaceutical services to consumers with a mental illness following the training. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that MHFA training can reduce pharmacy students' mental health stigma, improve recognition of mental disorders and improve confidence in providing services to consumers with a mental illness in the pharmacy setting.