Why Mental Health first Aid to Youth

in community?

PRESENTER
Mr. R. M. Timmapur
Psychiatric Social Worker

Department of Psychiatric Social Work

DIMHANS. Dharwad

• DATE : 25/10/2019 VENUE: Seminar Hall

 Order of the Presentation

• Introduction

• Definition

• Why mental Health First aid

• What are the measures of Mental Health First aid

• Conclusion
 Introduction
• ‘Youth’ is defined as the age group between is 15-29 years.
(National Youth policy 2014)
• As per the Annual Report of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports
(Department of Youth Affairs), 2016-17, the youth make up to be the
most enthusiastic segment for any institution for governance.
• Due to their vibrant and dynamic approach, ‘India’ comes across as
a young nation with nearly 65 per cent of its population falling
under the rough age bracket of “under 35”, thus making it a largely
young nation.
• The Annual Report estimates that by 2020, India would have a
median age of 28 years as compared to the 38 years of other South
Asian nations and China.
• The Indian population under the age group of 15-29, comprises 27.5
of the total population, giving India a favorable demographic
profile.
• The term ‘Youth’ as defined by the UNESCO – is “best
understood as a period of transition from the dependence on
childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of our
independence as members of a community. youth is a more
fluid category than a fixed age group”.
• Youth is considered to be as the enthusiastic, innovative,
dynamic in nature which builds the confidence.
• Mental health is defined as “successful performance of a
mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling
relationships with other people and ability to change and to
cope with adversity” (Rockville, 1999).
 What is Mental Health First Aid
• Youth is defined by WHO that Mental health as “a state of
well being in which the individual realizes his or her own
abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work
productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution
to his or her community” 1975. WHO
• Distress is as an indicator of the mental health of the
population in public health and youth the concept of
psychological distress is still vague.
• “Psychological distress” is often applied to the undifferentiated
combinations of symptoms ranging from depression and
general anxiety symptoms to personality traits, functional
disabilities and behavioral problems (Mirowsky &Ross,
2002).
 Definition of Mental health first aid

• Mental health first aid is the help provided to a person who

is developing a mental health problem, experiencing a
worsening of an existing mental health problem or in a
mental health crisis. The first aid is given until appropriate
professional help is received or the crisis resolves.
• Studies indicate that high risk behaviors in adolescents and
youth have increased. The tendency and diversity of high risk
behaviors are observed at this age.
• High risk behaviors namely violence, quarrels, smoking
cigarettes, verbal and non-verbal threats, neglecting the
lessons, humiliating others, high sexual behaviors, substance
use, suicidal attempts, aggression, impulsivity, hyperactivity,
thrill seeking behavior, poor communication with parents and
failure academic resulted in experiencing high stress and
hopeless prone them into end their life.
 Conti-
The risk taking levels of adolescents and young people
accounts for a higher percentage than others, and they showed
to have a higher tendency toward high risk behaviors.
Most of these problems are linked with social determinants
and lifestyles operating and interacting in complex
environments that precipitate or trigger these conditions or
behaviors.
• Further, developmental transition of young people make them
vulnerable particularly to environmental, contextual or
surrounding influences. Environmental factors including
family, peer group, school and social cues.
• High risk behaviors are among the health threats for this
stratum of the community. Overweight, obesity, stress, anxiety,
depression, interpersonal violence among youth, suicide
tendencies, tobacco use, alcohol and drug addition and non-
communical diseases (NCDs) are more commonly reported in
the community.
 Measures of MHFA
• So far, many programs are designed by Government of India
and on going such as youth empowerment programs, skill
development and various welfare programs for the
empowerment of the youth. Youth are trainined Central, state
and local governments like National Cadet Corps (NCC),
National Service Scheme (NSS), Nehru Yuva Kendra
Sangathan (NYKS), Neighborhood Youth Parliament (NYP),
Youth for Development Programme (YFDP), These schemes
are financial assistance through the government and Non
governmental Organizaitons (NGOs) under Department of
youth Affairs and Sports was created in Government of India.
• However, mental health issues among youth in the community
are neglected as a result suicide rates are increasing.
• Hence, recognizing and analyzing reasons for youth distress is
need of the hour and train the youth in providing mental health
first aid is essential in prevention of youth distress.
 Conti-
• MHFA emerges from the Australian mental health goa of
early detection and treatment of mental disodrder (Jorm
2000) MHFA training seminars coach to human distress as
pscyhaiatric pathaology, “The five Basic Action of MHFA”
(MH commission of Canada 2010)
 Research Methodology

• The current paper is to explore the need for mental health first
for youth and its role of in the prevention of youth distress in
the community.
• What are the risk factors for youth’s psychological distress?
• This exploratory scoping study aims to establish the nature and
extent of current knowledge relating to factors contributing to
youth distress, need and importance of mental health first aid
for youth and preventive programs that required to reduce the
youth psychological distress in the community. In particular in
sought to address the following questions.
 What is youth mental health first aid?
• Mental health first Aid is to identify, understand and respond to signs
and symptoms of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Risk
factors and warning signs of mental health concerns builds
understanding of their impact and provide the treatment. To assess a
mental health crisis through role play, intervention provide help and
connect people to professional, peer and social supporter and self help
group
• What are the risk factors for youth’s psychological distress?
• How does mental health first aid helpful in preventing youth distress in the
community?
• This scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley (2005) frame work.
They proposed six interactive processes: Identifying the broad
question, searching for studies, selecting the relevant studies,
extracting data, summarizing and reporting and consultation.
 Cont-
• To identity the relevant studies, we searched four electronic
databases Google scholar, Pubmed, DOAJ and Scopus.
• In addition, relevant articles were sourced from refences list,
mental health manuals and citation tracking. Search terms
were focused on youth and adolescents.
• For example youth and adolescents distress, mental health first
aid, youth and psychological first aid, youth and risk factors.
• The search was limited to peer reviewed search involved age
group between 15 to 29 years, free and full article available in
English during last 10 years (2009 to 2019)
 Cont-
• This scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley (2005)
frame work. They proposed six interactive processes:
Identifying the broad question, searching for studies,
selecting the relevant studies, extracting data, summarizing
and reporting and consultation.
 Result and Discussion:
• Incorrect life style: Life style disease are defined as diseases
linked with the way people live their life.
• This is caused by alcohol, smoking abuse, as well as lack of
physical activity and unhealthy eating. For example stroke,
heart disease and obesity.
• Technology has a huge impact on every day life of youth. It
negatively affects the youth and teens because of it is an
attention deficit, it cause depression, and cyber bullying.
Vision problems, hearing loss and neck strain.
• Therefore, psychological first aid is important. Psychological
first aid is an evidence based informed modular approach to
help children, adolescents, adults and families in crisis.
• Youth mental health is designed to teach parents, family
members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbours,
community level workers who is experiencing crisis.
• Youth mental health first aid is designed for adults wgi
regularly interact with young people.
• Under this programme stress management, handling the
depression, addictive behaviours, disruptive behaviours, eating
disorders, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, traumatic events
and aggressive behaviours.
 Five Action Steps ALGEE
• The following steps are very important:
1. Assess the risk of suicide or harm
2. Listen non-judmentally
3. Give assurance and information
4. Encourage the person to get appropriate professional help
5. Encourage self-help strategies
 Assessment:

• There are different type of training program may benefits in

local community or state overall assessment factors
1. Identify the need in your community
2. Identify stakeholders
3. Identify the climate
4. Learn from others
5. Find your champion
 Primary point of “first aider” approach is
vital to the community

1. Mental health problems are common.

2. People with mental health problems often face negative
attitudes and discrimination.
3. Many people are not well informed about mental health
problems
4. Professional help is not always on hand
5. People often do not know how to respond.
6. People with mental health problems often do not seek help.
 Protective factors:

• High self-esteem
• Good problem solving skills
• Feeling of control in their own life
• Spirituality
• Avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
• Consistent home/family routine
• Parental/familial support
• Regular school attendance and academic performance
• Having a good social support system
• Economic security
•
 Conclusion
• After the discussion of mental health issue in youths various
programs for empowerment youths, India has majority of
youth between age 15-24 years, measures of youth and mental
health first Aid for youth imperative to reduce the emotional
disturbances. In addition, imparting effective emotional and
social skills, support for young people, their families,
intervention and basic needs fulfill community on high-risk
behavior modification recommended ensuring better mental
health and reducing suicide rate among youth in the
community.
 References:
• Albert, N., & Beck, A. T. (1975). Incidence of depression in early
adolescence: A preliminary study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 4(4),
301-307.
• Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (2002). Depression, parenthood, and age at
first birth. Social Science & Medicine, 54(8), 1281-1298.
• Arksey, H., & O'Malley, L. (2005). Scoping studies: towards a
methodological framework. International journal of social research
methodology, 8(1), 19-32.
• Garg, P. (2012). Energy scenario and vision 2020 in India.Journal of
Sustainable Energy & Environment, 3(1), 7-17.
• Hunt, Q. A., Morrow, Q. J., & McGuire, J. K. (2019). Experiences of
suicide in transgender youth: a qualitative, community-based
study. Archives of suicide research, 1-16.
 Conti-
• https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/welfare-
programmes-by-the-government-of-india-1448434362-1
• https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/skill-
develpment-in-youth-222638-2014-10-10
• https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/about/mental-health-first-aid/
• https://mhfa.com.au/about/our-activities/what-we-do-mental-health-
first-aid
• Lives, P. W. S., & Rosenberg, L. National Council for Community
Behavioral Healthcare. Lea, 301, 984-6200.
• Jorm, A. F., Kitchener, B. A., Fischer, J. A., & Cvetkovski, S. (2010).
Mental health first aid training by e-learning: a randomized controlled
trial. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 44(12), 1072-
1081.
• Irfan, M., Sethi, M. R., Abdullah, A. S., Saleem, U., & Khan, D. (2018).
Psychological distress in students appearing for the medical school
entrance examination in Peshawar. JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan
Medical Association, 68(11), 1603-1607.
Thank you