Mental Health First Aid in Academia: Experiences of setting up a MHFA team at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany

Purpose The mental health of academics at all career stages has become a topic of great concern in recent years, and different institutes of Higher Education have vastly different approaches to supporting their staff and students with their wellbeing. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an accredited and evidence-based structured intervention when a person struggles with their wellbeing and can be implemented in most Higher Education settings in a relatively uncomplicated manner, so long as an accredited national provider of MHFA training is available. Design Mental Health First Aid training is offered by nationally accredited institutes and is open to absolutely anybody, much like physical health first aid. There is also the option to designate a certified trainer in your institute and roll out the training in-house Results Dr. Hendrik Huthoff from the University of Jena will share his experiences of building a MHFA first aid team at the university, starting from a grass-roots movement of post-graduate program coordinators to the implementation of in-house training. He will share his experiences of being a MH first aider, how this is helpful to anyone in an advisory, counselling or leadership position in higher education as well as discussing some of the most common issues with which the MHFA team are presented. Implications MHFA is a proven support mechanism that can be implemented in nearly any professional and private setting and serve as a selective prevention of risk groups by delivering an evidence-based intervention in times of crisis Acknowledgments This work is supported by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung through its funding of the Jena Alliance of Graduate Schools “Life in Focus” at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Resources https://www.uni-jena.de/en/mhfaThis document is part of the Book of Abstracts of the ReMO 2022 Conference that was organized within the framework of COST Action CA19117 - "Researcher Mental Health"