Making sure our students are practice-ready from the day they graduate is a priority for RCSI. With one in four people experiencing mental health issues each year, giving our students the tools to help the people they meet with mental health challenges is key. Here, PhD candidate Zoe McCormack describes what the university is teaching students about mental health first aid.
The World Health Organisation has made improving mental health a global priority. To build a strong and supportive healthcare system, we need to start with the education of health profession students. Ireland's current mental health policy, 'Sharing the Vision', focuses on prevention, early intervention, and improving primary and non-mental health services to address mental health needs. Health profession students need to understand mental health to help those with mental health challenges. Teaching them about mental health is essential for our communities and for their future roles in healthcare.
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) started in Australia and is a well-known, evidence-based training course. It's similar to physical first aid training, which is widely accepted for physical health issues and emergencies. The course teaches people how to provide early help for various mental health issues, like suicidal thoughts, anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse, until the crisis is over or professional help is available. Since it began, over seven million people in 29 countries have been trained.
Research shows that MHFA training helps reduce the stigma around mental illness and improves understanding of mental health. Health profession students and professionals who have taken MHFA training feel more prepared and confident to talk with patients about their mental health. They also develop better mental health knowledge and are more likely to help others. Including mental health programs like MHFA in health profession curriculums makes students more confident and willing to support their peers and friends.
In Ireland and the UK, a study conducted by RCSI researchers showed that 89% of pharmacy students who took MHFA training as part of their studies supported adding it to the university curriculum. For the past seven years, MHFA has been part of the MPharm programme at RCSI, thanks to a partnership between St John of God Hospital (SJOG), MHFA and the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences when Prof. Dolores Keating, Chief Pharmacist at St John of God Hospital and Honorary Associate Professor at RCSI, brought MHFA to Ireland and it is now being rolled out to RCSI’s medical students.
The MHFA course ensures that RCSI is delivering graduates who have basic mental health knowledge and the confidence to discuss mental health with peers and future patients. This collaboration also led to my PhD research, funded by MHFA, where I am researching how to adapt and implement MHFA at RCSI since 2022. This research involves students at RCSI and mental health advocates as part of the SJOG consumer and carer council who are PPI contributors on the research.
In 2023, two final-year medical students initiated a StEP project to see if MHFA could be added to the medical curriculum. This was inspired by their own experiences of their education and their identification of a training gap for developing these skills. This project, carried out with St John of God Hospital, showed the need for mental health training in medical education. Now, MHFA is offered as an optional module for medical students in their first and second year, helping them improve their mental health knowledge and skills to support themselves and future patients.
The module is enhanced by the expertise in simulation training at RCSI, giving students a chance to practice their new skills at the end of the course. MHFA is also offered during the annual Research Summer School programme, offering students across Undergraduate programmes the chance to gain MHFA certification.
The delivery of MHFA at RCSI is led by an interdisciplinary team involving PhD researcher Zoe McCormack, Director of Education Prof. Judith Strawbridge, Chief Pharmacist at SJOG and Honorary Associate Prof. Dolores Keating, Head of Student Welfare Mr Noel O’Callaghan, and embedded instructors Michelle O’Toole (Teacher Practitioner) and Michelle Burnett (Student Welfare Officer). All MHFA instructors at RCSI are trained, mentored and accredited by Mental Health First Aid Ireland.
RCSI is committed to achieving a better and more sustainable future through the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
