Brief Mental Health First Aid Program (bMHFA) for Parents to Improve Mental Health Literacy in Low-Income Families: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The goal of this Randomized Controlled Trial study is to test the effectiveness of the brief Mental Health First Aid Program (bMHFA) for parents to improve Mental Health Literacy in Low-Income families. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does the brief MHFA program improve mental health literacy among parents in low-income families? Does the brief MHFA program improve mental well-being among children in low-income families? Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups, intervention and control group. Intervention group: attend a 2-hour training program on brief MHFA Intervention group: complete a set of questionnaire Intervention group: Interviews will be conducted at 12-month follow up Control: no need to attend any workshop Control: complete a set of questionnaire

Detailed Description
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The traditional MHFA program covers many more mental disorders. Parents in the intervention group will receive a 2-hour workshop delivered by a registered nurse who has a MHFA training certificate from the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong. The first part includes an introduction that defines mental health and identifies mental health crises and symptoms, risk factors, and impacts. The second part of the workshop involves teaching parents the five key ALGEE techniques. The final part of the workshop concerns application of ALGEE in common types of mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and substance abuse. Interviews will be held after 12-month of the intervention. While the other group (control) will just have to complete a set of questionnaire, same set also need to complete by the intervention group.

Official Title
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Brief Mental Health First Aid Program (bMHFA) for Parents to Improve Mental Health Literacy in Low-Income Families: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Conditions
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Mental Health Issue

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Brief Mental Health First Aid Workshop
* Other: Semi-structured interviews


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: aged 18 years or above able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese parenting at least one child aged 8-13 years receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance or have a household income less than the half of the median Children must be able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese Exclusion Criteria: Parents and children with identified cognitive, behavioral, or mental problems will be excluded

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Intervention<br>Intervention group parents will receive a 2-hour workshop delivered by a registered nurse with a MHFA training certificate, in groups of up to 10 parents. Parents will receive a leaflet summarizing the training contents after the workshop. At 1 week and 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups, the trained registered nurse will send a 5-minute reminder video via WhatsApp/WeChat to parents describing the key MHFA techniques. A set of online questionnaires will also be delivered to the parent-child dyads at these follow-ups. | Other: Brief Mental Health First Aid Workshop<br>* a 2-hour workshop delivered by a registered nurse with a MHFA training certificate<br>|
| No Intervention: Control<br>The control group will receive no intervention. Only completing the sets of questionnaire. | |
| Other: Intervention (Interview)<br>Parents in the intervention group with the highest and lowest mental health literacy scores will be purposively invited to participate in one-to-one semi-structured interviews to explore their experience of the intervention. | Other: Semi-structured interviews<br>* One-to-one, face-to-face semi-structured interviews will be conducted by a research assistant. The duration would be around 30 minutes.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parents' level of mental health literacy | Chinese version of the mental health literacy scale | 12-month follow-up | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parents' level of mental health literacy | Chinese version of the mental health literacy scale | 1-week and 1-, 3-, and 6- month follow-ups | 
| Children's self-esteem | Chinese version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale | baseline and at the 1-week and 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups | 
| Children's depressive symptoms | Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children | baseline and at the 1-week and 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups | 
| Children's anxiety symptoms | Chinese version of the separation anxiety scale for children | baseline and at the 1-week and 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Low-Income families, Parents, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), brief intervention