Betty Kitchener

Betty Ann Kitchener (born 1951 ) is an Australian Mental Health educator who co-founded Mental health first aid training along with Professor Anthony Jorm.

Career Betty Kitchener trained as a teacher, counsellor and nurse. She is also a mental health consumer advocate, having experienced recurrent major depression. Until the end of 2016, she was CEO of Mental Health First Aid Australia. She held an honorary Adjunct Professorship at Deakin University from 2013 to 2019.

Community activism In 2000, she founded Mental health first aid training in Canberra, together with her husband Anthony Jorm, who is a mental health researcher. This program spread across Australia and by 2011 over 170,000 Australian adults had received the training (1% of the country’s adult population). By 2015, this had reached 350,000 and by 2025 1.5 million. The training has been adapted to various cultural groups in Australia, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Vietnamese Australians and Chinese Australians. The training program has spread to many other countries, including Bangladesh, Bermuda, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malta, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, the United States and Wales. By 2025, over 8 million persons had been trained in Mental Health First Aid globally.

Awards and honours Kitchener has received many awards and honours for her work on Mental health first aid, including: Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Consumer Researcher Award, 2004. Order of Australia Medal (OAM), 2008. Excellence in Mental Health Education, National Council of Behavioral Healthcare, USA, 2008. Exceptional Contribution to Mental Health Services Award, TheMHS, 2009. Finalist, Victorian Senior Australian of the Year, 2014. Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 2015, for significant service to the community through mental health support, research and education programs. Australia Day Ambassador, Victoria, Donald & Birchip 2015, Inglewood 2016, Shepparton 2017, Apollo Bay 2019, Sea Lake 2020 Chancellor's Alumni Award, University of Canberra, 2015. Alumni Award, University of New South Wales, 2016. Finalist, Australian Mental Health Prize, 2016. The Betty Kitchener Prize established by the University of Canberra to support students pursuing mental health research projects, 2019. Australian Rotary Health Medal, 2024. Lifetime Achievement Award, National Council for Mental Wellbeing (USA), 2025.

Publications Some of her publications are the following: Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2002). Mental Health First Aid Manual. Canberra: Centre for Mental Health Research. Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2002). Mental health first aid training for the public: evaluation of effects on knowledge, attitudes and helping behavior. BMC Psychiatry, 2, 10. Kitchener, B.A., Jorm, A.F. & Kelly, C.M. (2013). Mental Health First Aid Manual (Third edition). Melbourne: Mental Health First Aid Australia. Kelly, C.M., Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2013). Youth Mental Health First Aid: A Manual for Adults Assisting Young People (Third edition). Melbourne: Mental Health First Aid Australia. Hart, L.M., Kitchener, B.A., Jorm, A.F. & Kanowski, L.G. (2010). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid Manual (Second edition). Melbourne: Mental Health First Aid Australia. Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2008). Mental health first aid: An international programme for early intervention. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2, 55-61. Jorm, A.F. & Kitchener, B.A. (2011). Noting a landmark achievement: Mental Health First Aid training reaches 1% of Australian adults. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 808-813. Hart, L.M., Kelly, C.M., Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2012). teen Mental Health First Aid: A manual for young people helping their friends. Melbourne: Mental Health First Aid Australia. Kitchener, B.A., Jorm, A.F. & Kelly, C.M. (2017). Older Person Mental Health First Aid: A Manual for Assisting People Aged 65+. Melbourne: Mental Health First Aid Australia. Jorm, A.F., Kitchener, B.A. & Reavley, N.J. (2019). Mental Health First Aid training: lessons learned from the global spread of a community education program. World Psychiatry, 18, 142-143.

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