Mental Health First Aid is a 8-hour training certification course which teaches participants a five-step action plan to assess a situation, select and implement interventions and secure appropriate care for the individual, the certification program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact and overviews common treatments. Thorough evaluations in randomized controlled trails and a quantitative study have proved the CPR-like program effecitve in imporving trainees' knowledge of mental disorders, reducing stigma and increasing the amount of help provided to others.
Mental Health First Aid originated in 2001 in Austrailia under the direction of fouders Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm. To date, it has been replicated in twenty other countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, Scotland, England, Canada, Finland and Singapore.