First aid strategies that are helpful to young people developing a mental disorder: beliefs of health professionals compared to young people and parents
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BACKGROUND: Little is known about the best ways for a member of the public to respond when someone in their social network develops a mental disorder. Controlled trials are not feasible in this area, so expert consensus may be the best guide. METHODS: To assess expert views, postal surveys were carried out with Australian GPs, psychiatrists and psychologists listed on professional registers and with mental health nurses who were members of a professional college. These professionals were asked to rate the helpfulness of 10 potential first aid strategies for young people with one of four disorders: depression, depression with alcohol misuse, social phobia and psychosis. Data were obtained from 470 GPs, 591 psychiatrists, 736 psychologists and 522 mental health nurses, with respective response rates of 24%, 35%, 40% and 32%. Data on public views were available from an earlier telephone survey of 3746 Australian youth aged 12-25 years and 2005 of their parents, which included questions about the same strategies. RESULTS: A clear majority across the four professions believed in the helpfulness of listening to the person, suggesting professional help-seeking, making an appointment for the person to see a GP and asking about suicidal feelings. There was also a clear majority believing in the harmfulness of ignoring the person, suggesting use of alcohol to cope, and talking to them firmly. Compared to health professionals, young people and their parents were less likely to believe that asking about suicidal feelings would be helpful and more likely to believe it would be harmful. They were also less likely to believe that talking to the person firmly would be harmful. CONCLUSION: Several first aid strategies can be recommended to the public based on agreement of clinicians about their likely helpfulness. In particular, there needs to be greater public awareness of the helpfulness of asking a young person with a mental health problem about suicidal feelings.
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Adolescents seemed to change from passive, avoidance-based approaches seen in community surveys of first aid for mental health to the more active stance proposed by CATCH-IT.
“However, adolescents did seem to change from passive, avoidance-based approaches seen in community surveys of “first aid for mental health” to the more active stance proposed by CATCH-IT.71,72”
From Adolescent and parent experiences with a primary care/Internet-based depression prevention intervention (CATCH-IT) (2011) · cites this paper as [71]
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References 42 · Cited by 62
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Lubman DI Jorm AF Morgan AJ Psychiatrists' views of the helpfulness of reducing cigarette use for young people with mental disorders Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2007 41 705 17620168 10.1080/00048670701579090 · DOI
- Authors
- Jorm, A. F., Morgan, A. J., & Wright, A.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Jorm, Anthony F
- Venue
- BMC Psychiatry
- Published
- 2008-06-08
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 42-42
- ISSN
- 1471-244X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2438354
- OpenAlex
- W2136578636
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 6.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Australian Government
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Keywords
- youth mental health, depression, social anxiety disorder, psychosis, suicidal ideation, help-seeking, expert consensus, health professionals' beliefs, public perception, parental attitudes
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Acute Disease, Adolescent, Adult, Alcoholism, Attitude of Health Personnel, Australia, Mental Disorders, Child, Crisis Intervention, Culture, Depressive Disorder, Diagnosis, Differential, Female, Health Surveys, Helping Behavior, Humans, Male, Parents, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Patient Care Team, Phobic Disorders, Psychotic Disorders, Public Opinion, Sick Role, Suicide, Comorbidity
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