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HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program
Scheele, Marina, Appel, Sandra, Rausch, Isabelle, Schecklmann, Martin
, Klein, Jakob, Staudinger, Susanne, Schmidt, Roger, Kreuzer, Peter M. and Langguth, Berthold
(2025)
HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program.
Frontiers in Public Health 13.
Date of publication of this fulltext: 02 Jul 2025 13:31
Article
DOI to cite this document: 10.5283/epub.77036
Abstract
Psychological first aid programs aim to train lay people to help others who are experiencing a mental health crisis or developing mental health problems. The current article introduces the new German psychological first aid training program HSN. The acronym HSN stands for “Helfen in Seelischer Not” (helping in mental distress) but also for the action chain “hear, speak, network.” The HSN ...
Psychological first aid programs aim to train lay people to help others who are
experiencing a mental health crisis or developing mental health problems. The
current article introduces the new German psychological first aid training program HSN. The acronym HSN stands for “Helfen in Seelischer Not” (helping in mental distress) but also for the action chain “hear, speak, network.” The HSN program differs from other well-examined mental health first aid programs by (1) focusing primarily on emotions instead of disorders, (2) using a blended approach, combining face-to-face and online elements right from the start of the project and (3) a low-threshold approach with a course duration of two hours. Here we specify the HSN concept and report first results from a sample of 150 students. The participating students completed a self-report questionnaire before and after the course regarding their “confidence to help.” The program demonstrated good feasibility without any relevant side effects. On a descriptive level we observed an improvement of the averaged values of all questionnaire items after the course. These positive initial results merit the further development of HSN as a lowthreshold psychological first aid program.
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| Item type | Article | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title | Frontiers in Public Health | ||||
| Publisher: | Frontiers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Access Type: | Gold (with APC) | ||||
| Volume: | 13 | ||||
| Date | 25 June 2025 | ||||
| Institutions | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie | ||||
| Identification Number |
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| Keywords | psychological first aid, mental health, HSN, interpersonal emotion regulation, emotion-focused, helping in mental distress, mental health education, “Helfen in Seelischer Not” | ||||
| Dewey Decimal Classification | 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine | ||||
| Status | Published | ||||
| Refereed | Yes, this version has been refereed | ||||
| Created at the University of Regensburg | Yes | ||||
| URN of the UB Regensburg | urn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-770361 | ||||
| Item ID | 77036 |
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