All schoolchildren and workers should be taught to assess when their peers are going through mental health problems and give them mental health first aid, a university dean has proposed.

Mental health first aid is a training programme based on the principles of the conventional first aid courses but is focused on helping members of the public recognise when their family, friends and colleagues are developing or experiencing a mental health crisis, and immediately support them with effective psychological help.

Andrew Azzopardi, the dean of the University’s Faculty for Social Well-being, insists the courses should be made mandatory in all schools, organisations and places of work.

The proposal is one of a hundred other “priorities and necessities” that Azzopardi drafted following consultation with psychiatrists, psychologists, lecturers, NGOs and people who have gone through, or are still going through, mental health problems. (See list on pdf below)

He argues the country must prioritise these suggestions if it intends to successfully diminish the effects of the soaring mental health challenges in today’s society.

Mental health foundation Richmond Malta has experienced an alarming 1,045 per cent surge in requests by youths for help in mental health issues since the start of the pandemic two years ago

“It has become necessary to invest even more in our children’s emotional development and resilience capabilities, and together with mental health first aid courses, these should become an integral part of the school curriculum,” he said. “Unions must also push for a mandatory mental health first-aider in places of work.” Mental health foundation Richmond Malta has experienced an alarming 1,045 per cent surge in requests by youths for help in mental health issues since the start of the pandemic two years ago and experts have warned of long-term consequences.

The hundred proposals vary from suggesting the use of animals for mental health therapy to the introduction of mental health breaks in the places of work, to a national database which stores information about the population’s mental health illnesses and its prevalence to each one.

The document suggests more training and awareness in virtually every profession, and touches on all key areas and demographics where mental health challenges are more likely to arise, such as in prison, in youth organisations, in families that are going through tough times, and among homeless and roofless people.

Azzopardi also proposes the government appoints a parliamentary secretary for mental health and another for loneliness, arguing that a national program on loneliness is necessary because it is an issue which is causing great suffering and is not properly addressed.

He also proposed a specialised, culturally sensitive mental health programme for migrants, which takes into consideration the needs of black, ethnic groups and other minorities, and suggested that solitary confinement is abolished from prison, except in extreme cases and when recommended by health authorities.