DIGEST - Volume 9, Issue 4- FULL DIGEST

11 TPC Digest Alwin E. Wagener, Laura K. Jones, J. Scott Hinkle The Mental Health Facilitator Program A Multi-Country Evaluation of Knowledge and Skills Acquisition T he Mental Health Facilitator (MHF) program is an innovative approach to addressing mental health challenges that is positively impacting communities around the world. A critical aspect to the success of the program is the training, and this article describes participants’ gains in knowledge of mental health and mental health facilitation skills as a result of the training. To better understand the gains, it is important to understand MHF training. The MHF program was developed by the National Board for Certified Counselors in response to the massive global deficit in mental health support and the resultant serious, negative consequences. In developing the program, it was recognized that for it to be effective, the program must be adaptable to the local needs and culture. At the same time, it also must provide consistent core training in the knowledge and skills necessary to assess mental health needs, provide support, work with community resources, and appropriately refer individuals to mental health professionals. Furthermore, the training has to be beneficial for individuals from a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds and capable of being delivered in a short period of time, generally in a week or less. Around these criteria, the MHF program was built, and it has now been successfully deployed in 26 countries over the last 12 years. This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of the MHF training, as measured through pre- and post- training tests. The analyses conducted on the pretests and posttests shows participants demonstrated significant gains in knowledge of mental health and mental health facilitation skills as a result of the training. Results of analyses also demonstrated that the gains were achieved by those with and without prior knowledge of mental health and mental health facilitation skills, such that participants with little previous knowledge and those with significant previous knowledge all were brought to a level of MHF competency by the training. The findings of this study add to the existing literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the MHF program, and it is hoped that it will contribute to the continued improvement and effectiveness of the MHF program in addressing mental health needs in underserved communities around the world. Alwin E. Wagener, NCC, is an assistant professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Laura K. Jones is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville. J. Scott Hinkle is the editor of The Professional Counselor. Correspondence can be addressed to Alwin Wagener, 285 Madison Ave., M-AB2-01, Madison, NJ 07940, awagener@fdu.edu.