Healthy Subjects (HS)tMHFA-HKNCT07195890
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Teen Mental Health First Aid in Secondary School Students in Hong Kong
A study testing A course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participants in people with Healthy Subjects (HS), run by TN Foo Centre for Positive Mental Health at 1 site in Hong Kong.
Trial summary
Mental health problems in adolescents are on the rise worldwide especially after COVID -19 pandemic. Early detection and intervention should help to reduce the adverse impact of the mental illness on the adolescent. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 14 to 18 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Healthy Subjects (HS)
- What is being tested?
- A course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participants
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 250 participants
- Where
- 1 siteHong Kong
- Study dates
- 1 Sep 2025to 30 Jun 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 14 to 18 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child, Adult
Who may be able to join
- Students
- Form 4 to 6
- Mainstream Chinese secondary schools in Hong Kong
- Schools sponsoring teen Mental Health First Aid courses to students
Who cannot join
- Students unable to give consent
- Parents/guardians unable to give consent
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Hong Kong1 site
TN Foo Centre for Positive Mental Health, Mental Health Association of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Hksar, 0
About this study
Mental health problems in adolescents are on the rise worldwide especially after COVID -19 pandemic. Early detection and intervention should help to reduce the adverse impact of the mental illness on the adolescent. Yet the adolescent may not be able to recognize mental illness, have stigma against the mentally ill and mental health services, and may not seek help even with mental illness. The local situation in Hong Kong has been reviewed and presented in a separate article (Lai, 2024). The high prevalence of psychiatric conditions in Hong Kong adolescents has been reported (Chan et al, 2025). Teen Mental Health First Aid (t MHFA) is a course developed in Australia for the promotion of mental health literacy including awareness of mental illness, reduction of stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness, and increase in appropriate help-seeking attitude and behavior among adolescents with emerging mental health problems (Hart, 2016). Mental Health Association of Hong Kong has run the mental health first aid courses in Hong Kong since 2004. The teen MHFA course has been translated and attuned to the local context recently. MHAHK has been funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in a two-year project in the development of a quality mental health campus in twenty secondary schools. In the project there will be mental health education programs for teachers, parents and students and mental health promotion activities in the schools. Teen MHFA will be provided to the students in the schools. It is a three-hour course separated into three separate sessions taught by trained instructors of MHAHK.
The study will obtain a baseline information about the awareness of mental illness, the attitude towards the mentally ill and help seeking behavior of secondary school students, and to verify the effectiveness of the teen MHFA course in promotion of mental health literacy of the participants, and to guide the further refinement and development of an effective course. It is hoped that the teen MHFA course can be available to all secondary schools and can help adolescents to develop appropriate mental health literacy at this important phase of development before reaching adulthood.
Read the detailed description
The study is an initial evaluation of the t MHFA in secondary school students in Hong Kong. Teen MHFA was initially evaluated in Australia (Hart et al, 2016). The study is a replication of the initial study by Hart et al but followed a quasi-experimental design as in the study of MHFA done in MHAHK (Wong et al, 2015).
Secondary school students from Form 4 to Form 6 arranged by the individual schools to attend the teen Mental Health First Aid course in the Quality Mental Health Campus Project will be invited to participate in the study as study subjects. Similar numbers of students from the same forms and in the same schools not attending the course will be invited to be the control. Consent from parents is to be obtained. An estimate of about 250 students with consent from parents and an equal number of students as the control group are included to allow statistical analysis. A self-administered questionnaire used in the Australian study of teen Mental Health First Aid will be translated, adopted to the local context and used in the study. The questionnaire in digital form will be administered to the study subjects within three weeks before the course as a baseline survey, immediately after the course as the first post-course survey, and about three months later as the second post-course survey. For the control group survey will be administered around the same time of baseline survey for study subjects and then three months after the baseline survey. The questionnaire is expected to be completed within 15 minutes.
The data are compiled for basic information about the study subjects and control subjects, and to verify any difference between the study subjects and the control subjects. The baseline information about awareness of mental illness, the attitude towards the mentally ill and help seeking behavior of adolescents will be compiled. The null hypothesis is to be applied to the statistical analysis in verifying the changes after the intervention in the study subjects and whether the changes are sustained after an interval of three months. Content analysis of open-ended responses including satisfaction and comments about the teen MHFA course will be done by the investigators.
- Conditions
- Healthy Subjects (HS)
- Being tested
- A course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participants
- Keywords
- teen mental health first aid, knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards the mentally ill, help seeking behavior
- Medical subject headings
- Help-Seeking Behavior
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
A course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participantsOther
The teen Mental Health First Aid course consists of three sessions developed in Mental Health First Aid in Australia. It has been translated and attuned to the Chinese in Hong Kong.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| teen Mental Health First Aid course | Other | A study group of participants receiving the t MHFA course and a control group without the course Receives: Other: A course of teen Mental Health First Aid to be provided to participants |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards the mentally ill and help seeking behavior
A questionnaire with two case vignettes is administered to a subject to assess the knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards the mentally ill, and the help seeking behavior.
Measured: A pre-test questionnaire is within three weeks before the course of teen MHFA. The first post-test questionnaire is immediately after the course of teen MHFA. The second post-test questionnaire is three months after the course.
Knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards the mentally ill and help seeking behavior
A self-administered questionnaire used in the Australian study of teen Mental Health First Aid will be translated, adopted to the local context and used in the study. The questionnaire in digital form will be administered to the study subjects within three weeks before the course as a baseline survey, immediately after the course as the first post-course survey, and about three months later as the second post-course survey. For the control group survey will be administered around the same time of baseline survey for study subjects and then three months after the baseline survey.
Measured: Pre-test is done within the week before the t MHFA course. 1st post test done immediately after the course. 2nd post test to be done after 3 months. Control group will have tests done around the time of pre-test and 3 months later.
Knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards the mentally ill and help seeking behavior for mental illness
The participants and control subjects will be measured with a questionnaire developed in Mental Health First Aid in Australia
Measured: Pre-test is done in the week before the intervention. 1st post test is immediately done after the course.
knowledge and attitude towards mental illness and the mentally ill, and help seeking behavior.
questionnaire is developed in Australia for teen Mental Health First Aid
Measured: pre-test is done in the week before the course of teen Mental Health First Aid, and 1st post test will be done immediately after the course.
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted29 Sep 2025
- Study start1 Sep 2025
- Primary completion30 Jun 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion30 Jun 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (4)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Healthy Subjects (HS)Studies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Model description
- A course of teen Mental Health First Aid will be provided to the study subjects.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 250 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- TN Foo Centre for Positive Mental Health
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07195890
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- TNFoo Centre, MHAHK
- Acronym
- tMHFA-HK
- Status last verified
- Sep 2025
- First submitted
- 14 Sep 2025
- Last updated
- 29 Sep 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No: The information of the individual participants will be kept confidential. Only the collective data will be analyzed.
Publications
Wong, D. F. K., Lau, Y., Kwok, S., Wong, P. (2015). Evaluating the effectiveness of mental health first aid programme for Chinese people in Hong Kong. Research on Social Work Practice, 27(1). doi:10.1177/1049731515585149
Lai, B. (2024). Promotion of Mental Health Literacy and Help-Seeking Behaviour of Adolescents with Mental Health Problems - The Local Perspective. Hong Kong Journal of Mental Health 2024, 50(2), 40-49.
Hart LM, Mason RJ, Kelly CM, Cvetkovski S, Jorm AF. 'teen Mental Health First Aid': a description of the program and an initial evaluation. Int J Ment Health Syst. 2016 Jan 19;10:3. doi: 10.1186/s13033-016-0034-1. eCollection 2016.
PubMed 26788123Chan SSM, Wong OWH, Hussain S, Tsoi KKF, Ma KKY, Chau SWH, Ma SL, Lai KYC, Chu WCW, Lo HHL, Ho SWS, Leung CC, Yiu KKL, So SHW, Sham PC, Hung SF, Leung PWL. Twelve-month prevalence of DSM-5 mental disorders and the psychosocial correlates- a child and adolescent psychiatric epidemiologic survey in Hong Kong SAR. Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2025 Mar 29;57:101533. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2025.101533. eCollection 2025 Apr.
PubMed 40236269