PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Gregory Armstrong AU - Georgina Sutherland AU - Eliza Pross AU - Andrew Mackinnon AU - Nicola Reavley AU - Anthony Jorm TI - Effects of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid training programme for non-suicidal self-injury on stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual assisting actions: an uncontrolled trial with precourse and postcourse measurement and 6-month follow-up AID - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066043 DP - 2023 Jan 01 TA - BMJ Open PG - e066043 VI - 13 IP - 1 4099 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/1/e066043.short 4100 - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/1/e066043.full SO - BMJ Open2023 Jan 01; 13 AB - Objectives Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a complex issue affecting Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Australia. We evaluated the effects of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA) training course on assisting an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person engaging in NSSI, including the effects on stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual assisting actions.Design Uncontrolled trial with precourse and postcourse measurement (n=49) and 6-month follow-up (n=17).Setting Participants attended courses that were run in Queensland and Victorian communities and through one national organisation.Participants Participants were 49 adults who worked directly with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples.Intervention The 5-hour ‘Talking About Non-Suicidal Self-Injury’ course was delivered by accredited AMHFA instructors and teaches people how to support an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person who is engaging in NSSI.Primary and secondary outcome measures The outcome measures were stigmatising attitudes, confidence in ability to assist, and intended and actual actions to assist a person engaging in NSSI.Results Improvements were observed in stigmatising attitudes, with significant changes from precourse in both the ‘weak-not-sick’ (postcourse p<0.0623; follow-up p=0.0058) and ‘dangerous/unpredictable’ (postcourse p<0.0001; follow-up p=0.0036) subscales. Participants’ confidence in ability to assist increased significantly both postcourse (p<0.0001) and at follow-up (p<0.0001). Despite a high level of endorsement for the nine recommended assisting actions at precourse, significant improvements (p<0.05) were observed in endorsement for six and four of the assisting actions postcourse and at follow-up, respectively. Course content was rated as being somewhat (3.4%), mostly (13.8%) or very (82.7%) culturally appropriate by participants who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.Conclusions The results of this uncontrolled trial were encouraging, suggesting that the Talking About Non-Suicidal Self-Injury course was able to improve participants’ attitudes, confidence and intended assisting actions.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data cannot be shared publicly. No consent was sought from participants to make the data publicly available, nor was it sought from the Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations and other Aboriginal corporations or community organisations, who gave permission for the training courses and associated data collection in their communities. We adhere to the Indigenous data sovereignty principle that the data be used only as agreed to by the Aboriginal-led organisations collaborating on this study. Reasonable requests for restricted access to the underlying data can be sent to the corresponding author.