Mental health first aid programs: a scoping review protocol

This review aims to map mental health first aid programs, and identify the characteristics and participants of such programs and the contexts of their implementation.

Mental health first aid is the help provided to a person developing a mental health problem or undergoing a mental health crisis. The first aid is provided until professional help is accessed or the crisis is resolved.

This scoping review will address programs that provide basic mental health first aid skills, with no exclusion criteria in terms of participants or contexts.

English, Portuguese, and Spanish published studies and unpublished papers, from 2009 to 2019, will be considered. JBI methodology and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews will be followed. The search will be carried out in databases, scientific repositories and reference lists. Duplicates will be removed and two independent reviewers will screen the titles, abstracts and full-text of the selected studies. Data collection will be performed with a tool developed by the researchers, based on JBI's model instrument for extracting study details, characteristics and results. A summary of the results will be presented in visual representations, narratives and tables.