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

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Mental Health Issue
• Interventions: Other: Semi-structured interviews; Other: Brief Mental Health First Aid Workshop

• Registration Number: NCT06148922
• Lead Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Brief Summary

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

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.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-09-01
• Status Verified: 2023-11
• Study First Submitted: 2023-11-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-11-20
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-11-20
• Study First Posted: 2023-11-28
• Last Update Posted: 2023-11-28
• Primary Completion: 2024-04-30
• Study Completion: 2026-04-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 788

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Intervention (Interview)	Semi-structured interviews	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.
Intervention	Brief Mental Health First Aid Workshop	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.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Parents' level of mental health literacy	12-month follow-up	Chinese version of the mental health literacy scale

Secondary Outcome Measures

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

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

The polytechnic university of Hong Kong; 🇭🇰 Hong Kong, Hong Kong