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Scheele, Marina ; Appel, Sandra ; Rausch, Isabelle ; Schecklmann, Martin ; Klein, Jakob ; Staudinger, Susanne ; Schmidt, Roger ; Kreuzer, Peter M. ; Langguth, Berthold

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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Details

Item typeArticle
Journal or Publication TitleFrontiers in Public Health
Publisher:Frontiers
Open Access Type:Gold (with APC)
Volume:13
Date25 June 2025
InstitutionsMedicine > Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Identification Number
ValueType
10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589608DOI
Keywordspsychological first aid, mental health, HSN, interpersonal emotion regulation, emotion-focused, helping in mental distress, mental health education, “Helfen in Seelischer Not”
Dewey Decimal Classification600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine
StatusPublished
RefereedYes, this version has been refereed
Created at the University of RegensburgYes
URN of the UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-770361
Item ID77036

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