HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program
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”...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589608/full |
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| author | Marina Scheele Sandra Appel Isabelle Rausch Martin Schecklmann Jakob Klein Susanne Staudinger Roger Schmidt Peter M. Kreuzer Berthold Langguth |
| author_facet | Marina Scheele Sandra Appel Isabelle Rausch Martin Schecklmann Jakob Klein Susanne Staudinger Roger Schmidt Peter M. Kreuzer Berthold Langguth |
| author_sort | Marina Scheele |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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 low-threshold psychological first aid program. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b722c70e191d4c40b480cecd11392e95 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-b722c70e191d4c40b480cecd11392e952025-08-20T03:26:26ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652025-06-011310.3389/fpubh.2025.15896081589608HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid programMarina Scheele0Sandra Appel1Isabelle Rausch2Martin Schecklmann3Jakob Klein4Susanne Staudinger5Roger Schmidt6Peter M. Kreuzer7Berthold Langguth8Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyStudy Center for Evangelical Youth Work Josefstal, Josefstal, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyStudy Center for Evangelical Youth Work Josefstal, Josefstal, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Regensburg, GermanyPsychological 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 low-threshold psychological first aid program.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589608/fullpsychological first aidmental healthHSNinterpersonal emotion regulationemotion-focusedhelping in mental distress |
| spellingShingle | Marina Scheele Sandra Appel Isabelle Rausch Martin Schecklmann Jakob Klein Susanne Staudinger Roger Schmidt Peter M. Kreuzer Berthold Langguth HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program Frontiers in Public Health psychological first aid mental health HSN interpersonal emotion regulation emotion-focused helping in mental distress |
| title | HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| title_full | HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| title_fullStr | HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| title_full_unstemmed | HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| title_short | HSN—helping in mental distress: a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| title_sort | hsn helping in mental distress a new emotion focused psychological first aid program |
| topic | psychological first aid mental health HSN interpersonal emotion regulation emotion-focused helping in mental distress |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589608/full |
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