Healthcare professional (HCP) students are at high risk of mental health problems, but stigma and fear of career repercussions often deter them from seeking help. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a globally disseminated course teaching the public to identify and respond to people experiencing mental health problems. MHFA training may address some of the challenges faced by HCP students, by improving mental health knowledge and by enhancing well-being and peer support.

To systematically review the available literature regarding the impact of MHFA training on HCP students’ mental health literacy, confidence and intentions to provide help, stigma, peer support and self-care.

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews ID: CRD42024589509), five databases were searched. Primary studies evaluating the above outcome measures in HCP students were included. Two authors independently screened references and extracted data. Quality was assessed using the Modified Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument and Cochrane Risk of Bias tools. A narrative synthesis was performed.

Of 2367 records screened, 26 met inclusion criteria. Confidence in supporting others and mental health literacy showed the most consistent improvements following MHFA training, whereas evidence for changes in stigma was mixed. Peer support, self-care and student well-being were infrequently examined, although qualitative data suggested that MHFA had improved openness to help-seeking.

MHFA shows promise in enhancing mental health literacy, confidence and intentions, and in reducing stigma, particularly when supplemented with experiential learning. HCP students may benefit from tailoring of such courses to their specific needs, fostering a culture of peer support, enhancing well-being and introducing basic concepts in mental health.

An inherent prerequisite to mental health first-aid (MHFA) is the ability to identify that there is a mental health problem, but little is known about the association between psychiatric labelling and MHFA. This study examined this association using data from two national surveys of Australian young people.

This study involved a national telephonic survey of 3746 Australian youth aged 12–25 years in 2006, and a similar survey in 2011 with 3021 youth aged 15–25 years. In both surveys, respondents were presented with a vignette portraying depression, psychosis or social phobia in a young person. The 2011 survey also included depression with suicidal thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder. Respondents were asked what they thought was wrong with the person, and reported on their first-aid intentions and beliefs, which were scored for quality of the responses.

Accurate labelling of the mental disorder was associated with more helpful first-aid intentions and beliefs across vignettes, except for the intention to listen non-judgementally in the psychosis vignette.

Findings suggest that community education programmes that improve accurate psychiatric label use may have the potential to improve the first-aid responses young people provide to their peers, although caution is required in the case of psychosis.