Mental health first aid for eating disorders: pilot evaluation of a training program for the public.

Background: Eating disorders cause significant burden that may be reduced by early and appropriate help-seeking. However, despite the availability of effective treatments, very few individuals with eating disorders seek treatment. Training in mental health first aid is known to be effective in increasing mental health literacy and supportive behaviours, in the social networks of individuals with mental health problems.

Australian Rotary Health: a major contributor to mental illness research and mental health awareness in Australia.

Objective: Australian Rotary Health (ARH) was established in 1981 with the goal of supporting family health research in Australia. Since 2000, ARH has supported research relevant to mental health and mental illness. This article describes the early history of the fund, the reasons for the move to mental illness research, some examples of research projects that have had a beneficial impact and the branching out into mental health community awareness raising and stigma reduction.

Self-monitoring using mobile phones in the early stages of adolescent depression: randomized controlled trial.

Background: The stepped-care approach, where people with early symptoms of depression are stepped up from low-intensity interventions to higher-level interventions as needed, has the potential to assist many people with mild depressive symptoms. Self-monitoring techniques assist people to understand their mental health symptoms by increasing their emotional self-awareness (ESA) and can be easily distributed on mobile phones at low cost. Increasing ESA is an important first step in psychotherapy and has the potential to intervene before mild depressive symptoms progress to major depressive disorder.

The prevalence and correlates of psychological distress in Australian tertiary students compared to their community peers.

Objective: To examine differences between university students, vocational education and training (VET) students, tertiary students combined and non-students in the prevalence of psychological distress and the socio-demographic and economic characteristics associated with psychological distress.

Method: The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was used to estimate the prevalence of moderate (16-21) and high (22-50) distress with data from three national surveys: the 2007 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, the 2007-08 National Health Survey (NHS), and the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB). Multinomial logistic regression models were also estimated using the HILDA survey to examine any differences in the characteristics associated with moderate and high distress between the groups.

Changes in psychological distress in Australian adults between 1995 and 2011.

Objective: To monitor changes in psychological distress in Australia over a 16-year period during which the availability of mental health services was increasing.

Method: Data on psychological distress using the 4-NS scale were analysed from national surveys of adults carried out in 1995, 2003-04 and 2011.

Results: No change in psychological distress was found.

Email-based promotion of self-help for subthreshold depression: Mood Memos randomised controlled trial.

Background: Subthreshold depression is common, impairs functioning and increases the risk of major depression. Improving self-help coping strategies could help subthreshold depression and prevent major depression.

Aims: To test the effectiveness of an automated email-based campaign promoting self-help behaviours.

Public recognition of mental disorders and beliefs about treatment: changes in Australia over 16 years.

Background: A 1995 Australian national survey of mental health literacy showed poor recognition of disorders and beliefs about treatment that differed from those of health professionals. A similar survey carried out in 2003/4 showed some improvements over 8 years.

Aims: To investigate whether recognition of mental disorders and beliefs about treatment have changed over a 16-year period.

Belief in the dangerousness of people with mental disorders: a review.

Background: The scientific literature on stigma has been confused because there are multiple components of stigma with different correlates. In order to help make sense of this confusion, the present review focuses on research on one of the most commonly measured components - belief in dangerousness.

Method And Results: The review examines: measurement of belief in dangerousness; prevalence of belief in dangerousness; characteristics of people who believe in dangerousness; experiences associated with belief in dangerousness; characteristics of people that elicit belief in dangerousness; the effects of psychiatric labelling; the effects of causal explanations; interventions to reduce belief in dangerousness; and effects on help-seeking.

Mental health first aid guidelines: an evaluation of impact following download from the World Wide Web.

Aim: Mental health first aid guidelines provide the public with consensus-based information about how to assist someone who is developing a mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the usefulness and impact of the guidelines on web users who download them.

Method: Web users who downloaded the documents were invited to respond to an initial demographic questionnaire, then a follow up about how the documents had been used, their perceived usefulness, whether first-aid situations had been encountered and if these were influenced by the documents.

Young people's mental health first aid intentions and beliefs prospectively predict their actions: findings from an Australian National Survey of Youth.

Little is known about whether mental health first aid knowledge and beliefs of young people actually translate into actual behavior. This study examined whether young people's first aid intentions and beliefs predicted the actions they later took to help a close friend or family member with a mental health problem. Participants in a 2006 national survey of Australian youth (aged 12-25 years) reported on their first aid intentions and beliefs based on one of four vignettes: depression, depression with alcohol misuse, psychosis, and social phobia.

Mental health of Indigenous Australians: a review of findings from community surveys.

Objective: To assemble what is known about the mental health of Indigenous Australians from community surveys.

Data Sources: A systematic search was carried out of publications and data sources since 2000 using PubMed, PsycINFO, Australian Medical Index, the National Library of Australia and datasets known to the authors.

Study Selection: Surveys had to involve representative sampling of a population, identify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and include a measure of mental health.

Australian youth still have limited awareness of headspace: results from a national survey.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to assess Australian young people's awareness of mental health services available for their age group. Of particular interest was awareness of headspace, which was created in 2006 to provide youth-oriented mental health services, and has expanded to 30 centres nationally in 5 years.

Method: In 2011, a telephone interview was conducted with a national sample of 3021 Australians aged between 15 and 25 years.

Development of key messages for adolescents on providing basic mental health first aid to peers: a Delphi consensus study.

Aim: Most young people fail to receive professional treatment for mental disorders; however, they do indicate a preference for sharing problems with peers. This article describes key messages about knowledge and actions to form the basis of a basic mental health first aid (MHFA) course for adolescents to increase recognition of and help seeking for mental health problems by teaching the best knowledge and helping actions a young person can undertake to support a peer with a mental health problem.

Methods: The Delphi method was used to achieve consensus among Australian and Canadian youth mental health experts regarding the importance of statements that describe helping actions a young person can take, and information they should have, to support a friend with a mental health problem.

Mental health literacy in higher education students.

Aim: With approximately 50% of young people aged 18-24 in tertiary education, these are potential settings for programmes to improve mental health literacy. A survey was carried out with students and staff of a tertiary education institution to investigate recognition of depression, help-seeking intentions, beliefs about interventions and stigmatizing attitudes.

Methods: Students of an Australian metropolitan university (with staff as a comparison group) participated in a telephone interview.

Oral folic acid and vitamin B-12 supplementation to prevent cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms--the Beyond Ageing Project: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Evidence remains unclear as to whether folic acid (FA) and vitamin B-12 supplementation is effective in reducing depressive symptoms.

Objectives: The objective was to determine whether oral FA + vitamin B-12 supplementation prevented cognitive decline in a cohort of community-dwelling older adults with elevated psychological distress.

Design: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a completely crossed 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design comprising daily oral 400 μg FA + 100 μg vitamin B-12 supplementation (compared with placebo), physical activity promotion, and depression literacy with comparator control interventions for reducing depressive symptoms was conducted in 900 adults aged 60-74 y with elevated psychological distress (Kessler Distress 10-Scale; scores >15).

Quality of information sources about mental disorders: a comparison of Wikipedia with centrally controlled web and printed sources.

Background: Although mental health information on the internet is often of poor quality, relatively little is known about the quality of websites, such as Wikipedia, that involve participatory information sharing. The aim of this paper was to explore the quality of user-contributed mental health-related information on Wikipedia and compare this with centrally controlled information sources.

Method: Content on 10 mental health-related topics was extracted from 14 frequently accessed websites (including Wikipedia) providing information about depression and schizophrenia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and a psychiatry textbook.