Peer-Presented Versus Mental Health Service Provider-Presented Mental Health Outreach Programs for University Students

McGill University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Self Efficacy; Social Connectedness; Quality of Life; Mindfulness; Social Support; Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: Stress and Coping Online Outreach Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05454592

19-11-031

Details and patient eligibility

About

The overarching goal of the present study was to evaluate a MHSP-presented versus peer-presented mental health resilience skills-building online video outreach program against a wait-list comparison group.

Full description

Participants were recruited using a study flyer distributed to students in-person on campus and online through email listservs, social media platforms, and from an existing database of university students who participated in previous studies and agreed to be followed-up with. Given the self-paced nature of the program, a staggered recruitment approach was used wherein new participants completed the online baseline questionnaires between January 2020 until early March 2020.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups (MHSP-presented, peer-presented, or a wait-list comparison group), while counterbalancing the three groups based on gender and preference for seeking help from MHSPs or peers (i.e., using results from the General Help-seeking Questionnaire). Two weeks after the baseline questionnaire was sent, participants in the intervention groups received either the MHSP-presented video or the peer-presented video (video 1) depending on which group they were randomly assigned to, as well as a link for access to the resource library. The following two videos were sent two weeks apart. Participants were encouraged to access the resource library over the duration of the program and were reminded with each video link sent. All participants then received post (T2) and follow-up measures (T3) 6 and 10 weeks following the baseline completion respectively. Participants in the wait-list comparison group were only asked to complete evaluation measures at the three time points (they only received the videos and resource library at the end of the study). Following completion of the study, students received an e-mail with a personalized profile indicating their individual scores on various measures and all participants received full access to the program resources (videos and resource library).

Enrollment: 274 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 29 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants were eligible for the study if they were between 18- 29 years of age, given the unique stressors associated with the developmental period of emerging adulthood (18-29 years old).
• Participants were required to have access to the internet (at least weekly) as the study was completed entirely online.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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274 participants in 3 patient groups

Peer-presented group

Experimental group

Description:

The online outreach program focused on four key areas of mental health resilience-building: dealing with stress, decreasing self-criticism, improving self-care and help-seeking behaviours, and enhancing social connections and social support. Using videos, interactive infographics, guided audio recordings, and podcasts, students were provided with clear descriptions of each area of mental health resilience as well as a variety of evidence-based strategies specifically targeting one or more of these areas. A first video was sent to students describing the online program, its overall focus, and how to access the skills-based strategies on the website's interactive resource library. Two subsequent videos then were sent to (a) help students with problem-solving for common challenges to strategy practice, and (b) maintain long-term strategy practice habits. To assess differences in terms of preference for deliverer, this video series was delivered by undergraduate students (i.e., peers).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stress and Coping Online Outreach Program

Mental health service provider-presented group

Experimental group

Description:

The program focused on four areas of mental health resilience-building: dealing with stress, decreasing self-criticism, improving self-care and help-seeking behaviours, and enhancing social connections and social support. Using videos, infographics, guided audio recordings, and podcasts, students were provided with clear descriptions of each area of mental health resilience as well as a variety of evidence-based strategies specifically targeting one or more of these areas. A first video was sent to students describing the online program, its overall focus, and how to access the skills-based strategies on the website's interactive resource library. Two subsequent videos were then sent to (a) help students with problem-solving for common challenges to strategy practice, and (b) maintain long-term strategy practice habits. To assess differences in terms of preference for deliverer, this video series was delivered by mental health service providers.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stress and Coping Online Outreach Program

Wait-list comparison group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in the wait-list comparison group did not receive any intervention throughout the duration of the study. However, they were asked to fill out the same baseline, post, and follow-up surveys as all other participants.