An innovative international Mental Health First Aid training programme for rangitahi aged 11-18 will be trialled in Cromwell and the Southern Lakes, then rolled out across New Zealand next year.

Te Hau Toka Southern Lakes Wellbeing Group has partnered with national workforce development provider for the mental health, addiction, and disability sectors Te Pou, to bring the programme here.

Te Hau Toka is providing Te Pou with funding to adapt the Youth Mental Health First Aid programme for New Zealand-specific use over the next six months.

Adapting the programme involves integrating cultural considerations, lived experience, language, relevant data and research, and clinical treatment pathways for New Zealand. Teaching tools, new instructor training and resources will also need to be developed.

The programme covers common mental health challenges experienced by young people including depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, substance use, psychosis. 

Participants are taught an action plan to provide first aid to a young person experiencing a mental health challenge, along with how to communicate with young people and the professional support pathways available.

Once Te Pou completes the programme adaptation, ten people working with youth will be selected from across the Southern Lakes to pilot the 14-hour Youth Mental Health First Aid programme under a ‘Train the Trainer’ model.  

This will certify them to train other adults, caregivers and whānau working with youth in places such as schools, clubs and youth groups to become youth mental health first aiders. 

Te Hau Toka Southern Lakes Wellbeing Group chair Adell Cox said the work is critical for supporting youth now and in the future.

“Prevention and early intervention are key to keeping our communities well and there’s a real need for more evidence-based specialised training to support our young people.

“Our youth mental health specialists have worked hard to identify a solution which will help us upskill key people in the Southern Lakes region. By working with Te Pou and paying the one-off development costs, we will be able to use this internationally acclaimed programme locally as well as making it available nationally…so that other regions can benefit at a fraction of the cost.”

Adell said adolescence is the peak age of onset for mental health challenges. Half of all people who will ever have a mental health challenge will experience their first episode before turning 18 years old.