In 1997, a quiet dog walk through the Canberra suburb of Weetangera became the setting for a conversation that would spark one of Australia’s most significant mental health programs, and one of our biggest mental health exports.
Mental Health First Aid, now a global initiative reaching more than 8 million people in over 30 countries, began with two Australians: Betty Kitchener AM and her husband, Emeritus Professor Anthony (Tony) Jorm.
“Someone at a research meeting said, ‘What we need is first aid for depression.’ I came home and told Betty. She was teaching physical first aid with the Red Cross at the time, and I asked her if anything about mental illness was covered. It wasn’t, and we both knew that needed to change,” Tony said.
Their shared experience and deep respect and love for one another’s experiences and expertise shaped the vision that would become Mental Health First Aid. Tony brought the research, and Betty brought her teaching expertise and lived experience of depression. Together, they built something that would grow far beyond what they imagined.
“We were just walking the dog, talking about ideas, as we often did. We loved our work, we supported each other, and this idea came from that. We thought it might be a few courses a year in Canberra,” Betty said.
From humble beginnings to global reach
Betty delivered the first course in late 2000 – with just nine people in attendance. Today, over 1.5 million Australians have received Mental Health First Aid training, with more than 140,000 people trained each year through a national network of instructors. More than 8 million people have been trained worldwide across 35 countries – a number that continues to grow each year.
The program is based on a simple idea – that, just like physical first aid, anyone can learn the skills to support someone experiencing a mental health problem or crisis. Mental Health First Aid has now been adopted in schools, workplaces, sports clubs, veterans’ groups and community organisations across Australia and around the world.
“Australia already had the first aid model. People accepted the idea that members of the public could train to help others to support before professional help could be received,” Betty said.
Evidence, action, and the ALGEE framework
From the beginning, Mental Health First Aid has been grounded in evidence. Professor Jorm’s research, based on consensus studies involving both clinical experts and people with lived experience, helped identify what people needed to know, and developed Mental Health First Aid guidelines on what works best when a member of the public is supporting someone with a mental health problem.
“There have been about 20+ randomised controlled trials carried out in a range of countries. What they show is that people who are trained in Mental Health First Aid have greater knowledge about mental health and how to respond to someone with mental health problems, as well as a reduction in stigmatising attitudes. They have greater confidence in assisting somebody and supporting someone, and they’re more likely to take action to support someone,” Tony said.
But Tony stressed the most meaningful evidence is from those who receive the help, with a paper reporting these findings currently in submission from the University of Melbourne.
This action plan, is a key part of the course and is based on consensus research involving both clinical experts and people with lived experience.
“Everything that’s taught in Mental Health First Aid isn’t just the opinion of Betty, me, or other staff at Mental Health First Aid International. We completed these very comprehensive studies where we trawled through research, carers’ manuals, professional manuals, everything we could find, about what anybody says you should do to assist someone with suicidal thoughts or another mental health problem or crisis.
“We gave these findings to , people with lived experience, their carers, and people with professional expertise. We require a high level of consensus across both groups before we include anything in the course,” Tony said.
A lifesaving role
While Mental Health First Aid is not the only program of its kind, Tony believes it plays a critical role in suicide prevention and early intervention.
“I think the problem of suicide in Australia and the world is not solvable by any single intervention, Mental Health First Aid included. But I think that to have success in preventing suicide at a national level, we need to have everybody in the population upskilled in how to assist.
“Suicidal thoughts can arise very rapidly in response to adversities in a person’s life. People can behave impulsively and act on suicidal thoughts very quickly, and a professional is often not going to be there at that time,” Tony continued.
“So the people who are there – the ones in the person’s social network – need to be the ones who can spot that something is wrong and step in to support them. I can’t see us having a major impact in mental health and suicide prevention without that component: a whole population that’s prepared and knows how to take action.”
A vision for the future
As Mental Health First Aid marks its 25th anniversary, the organisation has pledged to train another 1.5 million Australians by 2030. Its success lies not just in evidence, reach, or training numbers, but in the values at its core: early intervention, non-judgemental listening, and the belief that anyone and everyone can learn the skills to make a difference.
For Tony and Betty, their love, respect and support for each other, through good times and bad, became the bedrock for what has now become a global movement.
“We never imagined it would go this far. But it was the right idea, at the right time, and the public was ready,” Betty said.
