Mental health awareness training (MHAT) : the development and evaluation of an intervention for leaders

Abstract

A three-hour mental health awareness training (MHAT) intervention was designed to improve leaders’ knowledge, self-efficacy, attitudes, and promotion intentions surrounding employee mental health. All participants (N = 142) were leaders at a large Canadian organization and were asked to respond to a baseline and two follow-up questionnaires. Participants were assigned to an intervention (n = 88) or wait-list control (n = 54) group. A mixed-model MANOVA resulted in a significant group-by-time interaction; univariate effects demonstrated that each of the four dependent variables was significantly affected by the training. Findings from a follow-up Roy-Bargmann stepdown demonstrate that when covariance between measures was controlled, the training only had a significant effect on knowledge and self-efficacy. The results of the stepdown, when combined with the univariate effects, may imply a pattern of direct and indirect effects among the training and outcome variables. Ultimately, findings suggest that the intervention successfully improved leaders’ mental health literacy up to eight weeks post-training.