First Aid Strategies for Young People with Mental Disorders
Author Information
Author(s): Jorm Anthony F, Morgan Amy J, Wright Annemarie
Primary Institution: ORYGEN Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
Hypothesis
What first aid strategies do health professionals believe are helpful for young people developing a mental disorder compared to the beliefs of young people and their parents?
Conclusion
Several first aid strategies can be recommended to the public based on agreement of clinicians about their likely helpfulness.
Supporting Evidence
- A clear majority of health professionals believe in the helpfulness of listening to the person and suggesting professional help.
- Young people and their parents were less likely to believe that asking about suicidal feelings would be helpful.
- There is a need for greater public awareness of the helpfulness of asking about suicidal feelings.
Takeaway
Doctors and mental health professionals have ideas about how to help young people with mental health problems, but young people and their parents sometimes think differently about what helps.
Methodology
Postal surveys were conducted with Australian GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health nurses to rate the helpfulness of 10 potential first aid strategies.
Potential Biases
There may be unknown sample biases associated with the low response rate for the professional samples.
Limitations
The study only examined a small subset of first aid strategies and relied solely on health professionals for expertise.
Participant Demographics
Participants included 470 GPs, 591 psychiatrists, 736 psychologists, and 522 mental health nurses, along with 3746 young people aged 12-25 and 2005 parents.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Want to read the original?
Access the complete publication on the publisher's website