AUTHOR=Sibeoni Jordan , Ellul Pierre , Bubola Théo , Debiche Yanis , Piot Marie-Aude 

TITLE=Mental health first aid training among healthcare French students: a qualitative study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2023.1268277

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2023.1268277

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Background: Healthcare students are a at risk population for mental health issues, The health faculty of Université Paris Cité, France, has implemented a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course aiming to improve students’ mental health literacy, self-care and peer-support and to decrease stigma about mental illness. We conducted a qualitative study exploring the lived experience of this MHFA training course among healthcare students to better assess its implementation within this specific context and population. 
Methods: This qualitative study used the five-stage inductive process to analyze the structure of lived experience (IPSE) approach. All the healthcare students that had completed the 2-day MHFA training were approached to participate. Data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews and inclusion continued until data saturation was reached. Data analysis was based on an inductive, descriptive, and structuring procedure to determine the structure of lived experience characterized by the central axes of experience.
Results: 20 students were included. Data analysis produced a common structure of lived experience based on three central axes of experience, (1) a personal experience, (2) a student experience and (3) a professional experience. The participants all experienced this course intertwined within these 3 axes. Their motivation to take the course was personal -being of feeling concerned by the topic-, was study-oriented – to learn and revise psychiatry- and was professional – so to develop both practical and soft skills.  In their personal experience, participants reported a transformative experience and some interventions with friends and family, while both in their student and professional experience, they felt frustrated with both the content and the form of the course.  
Conclusion: The results reported similar outcomes reported in the literature about skills, knowledge, and awareness; but mostly produce original avenues about how to better adapt such course to this specific population so to better address students’ expectations and mental health issues. This MHFA course -with an adapted content addressing eating disorders, self-mutilations and sexual and gender-based violence – could be part of the early curriculum of healthcare students. The latter could then benefit from a level 2/advanced MHFA course years later specifically tailored for healthcare professionals.