Please find the letter below from Professor Anthony Jorm, Director of the Mental Health Literacy Program Melbourne Uni. Please consider assisting this worthy project. Support and advice will be provided to anyone giving information for this project from NNAAMI. Contact Paul via nnaami website.

Dear Mr Mckillop,

Mental Health First Aid Standards Projects: Depression or Psychosis

We are currently conducting a series of studies to develop mental health first aid standards for depression and psychosis. The aim of these two projects is to use the consensus of expert clinicians, consumers and carers to establish how members of the general public can best help and support someone they know who may be developing either depression or psychosis, before appropriate professional treatment is received. An information sheet explaining the projects in more detail is attached. Download MS Word version or the PDF Version.

We are inviting carers, who have looked after someone with depression or psychosis, to take part in these studies. We believe that it is imperative that carers are involved in developing the standards for mental health first aid because of their expertise with the lived experience of these mental illnesses. However, any carers who participate in the projects need to be comfortable reflecting on their care-giving experiences with loved ones with depression or psychosis. For this reason, these projects may be particularly appropriate for carers in publicly visible roles; for example, those who have chosen to work in advocacy roles or with support groups. If you know of any such carers who may be interested in participating in one of these projects, please pass on this information to them so they can contact us via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We would really appreciate your help with what we believe to be extremely important and worthwhile research. Once established, these standards will empower members of the public to provide crucial support to family members, friends and colleagues who may be suffering from depression or psychotic disorders. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for your help. It is much appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Anthony Jorm
Director of the Mental Health Literacy Program
ORYGEN Research Centre

Robyn Langlands
Research Assistant
ORYGEN Research Centre