Mental health first aid (MHFA) courses teach community members the knowledge and skills needed to recognize and respond to mental health problems until professional help is received or the crisis resolves. This study aimed to develop a reliable and valid measure of MHFA behaviors. A pool of actions that were recommended and not recommended were selected from MHFA guidelines and developed into two scales measuring either intended or provided support. Items were tested with a sample of 697 adults. Item response theory guided the selection of final items. The Mental Health Support Scale (MHSS) Intended version has 23 items across two subscales and the MHSS–Provided has 12 items across two subscales. These scales demonstrated convergent validity, discrimination between respondents with and without MHFA expertise, and acceptable measurement precision across a range of skill levels. Overall, findings suggest that the MHSS is a valid and useful measure of MHFA behaviors.

心理健康急救 (MHFA) 课程向社区成员传授识别和应对心理健康问题所需的知识和技能，直到获得专业帮助或危机解决。本研究旨在开发一种可靠和有效的 MHFA 行为测量方法。从 MHFA 指南中选择了一组推荐和不推荐的行动，并发展成两个量表来衡量预期或提供的支持。对 697 名成年人的样本进​​行了测试。项目反应理论指导最终项目的选择。心理健康支持量表 (MHSS) 预期版本有 23 个项目，跨越两个分量表，而 MHSS-Provided 有 12 个项目跨越两个分量表。这些量表显示了收敛效度，区分有和没有 MHFA 专业知识的受访者，以及在一系列技能水平上可接受的测量精度。总体而言，研究结果表明，MHSS 是衡量 MHFA 行为的有效且有用的指标。