Youth Mental Health First Aid - Life Saving Victoria

Life Saving Victoria offers Youth MHFA training for adults to support adolescents' mental health.

  • Tier: Tier 1: Positive Mental Health Promotion
  • Type of intervention: Mental health literacy
  • Strength of evidence: Level 4: Established evidence for program (supported by quality research evidence)
  • Geographic location: State-wide

Program description

Life Saving Victoria is a provider of Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA).

Youth MHFA is for adults who work, live with or care for adolescents. In this program, adults will learn how to assist adolescents who are developing a mental health problem, experiencing worsening of a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis. The program focuses on improved mental health literacy and early intervention.

This course will help participants to better recognise changes in students’ thinking, feelings, or behaviour that may indicate presence of a mental health problem. Topics covered include:

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • panic attacks
  • eating disorders
  • suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

Intended outcomes

  • Reduced stigmatising attitudes
  • Increased knowledge of mental health problems
  • Increased confidence to respond to adolescent mental health problems

Program details

Target audienceCapacity building for secondary school staff
Program providerLife Saving Victoria
Delivery mode
  • Face-to-face
  • Online
  • Combination of face-to-face and online

Implementation considerations

  • Target population: Adults who work, live with or care for adolescents such as teachers, school support staff, parents, sports coaches, community group leaders and youth workers.
  • Program adaptability: The MHFA programs are delivered via face-to-face, blended (eLearning + classroom) or online (eLearning + webinar) delivery modes.
  • Staffing: Backfilling may be required depending on what course type is chosen or being delivered.
  • Training requirements: The course takes about 14 hours with allocations split over presentation time and eLearning pre-requisites depending on the delivery mode chosen. Refreshers involve 4-5 hours of training time. Where classroom delivery is applicable schools will be responsible for ensuring a suitable training venue including a training room, whiteboard, projector screen, tables and chairs. Courses can also be hosted at the LSV State Centre in Port Melbourne.
  • Factors to consider: The face-to-face and blended courses can accommodate 6-24 participants and the video conferencing/remote course can accommodate 6-12 participants.
  • Australian context: Youth MHFA was developed in Australia by MHFA Australia. Life Saving Victoria is a provider of this program.

Cost

Item cost

$201-$2000

Detailed cost

Youth MHFA is costed at $249 per person (inc. GST), or $295 per person (inc. GST) for blended/online delivery. To refresh Youth MHFA certification costs $170 per person (inc. GST).

Where a course is booked as privately or in-house, a minimum charge of 12 candidates will apply.

Additional costs may be included for travel. Accommodation costs are $140 inc. GST per night and the subsequent meal allowance is $50 inc. GST.

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