Abstract

LOUREIRO, Luís Manuel de Jesus  and  FREITAS, Paula Maria Figueiredo Pinto de. Effectiveness of the mental health first aid program in undergraduate nursing students. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2020, vol.serV, n.1, pp.e19078-e19078. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIV19078.

Background: The Mental Health First Aid Program (MHFA^®) is one of the educational tools that can contribute substantially to increasing the mental health literacy of young higher education students. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the MHFA program, the mental health literacy rate about depression and anxiety in nursing students. Methodology: Pre-experimental design, with a single group, evaluation pre- and post-intervention, applied to a sample of 219 students in the 1^st year of the bachelor's degree in nursing. The Questionnaire for Assessment of Mental Health Literacy (QuALiSMental) was used. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software v24.0. Results: The program is effective in increasing the mental health literacy rate. Statistically significant changes were observed in all dimensions analyzed, with moderate to high values in the effect size measures. Conclusion: The MHFA program reveals to be appropriate in the integration of higher education students and can be used as a preventative measure and to promote mental health.

Keywords : mental health literacy; depression; anxiety; students; nursing; first aid.

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