Adapting a social network intervention for people with SMI
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ConNEct: Co-Adaptation of a Social Network Intervention to Support Recovery for People living with Severe Mental Illness
IRAS ID
287584
Contact name
Helen Brooks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Summay of Research
A person’s social network is made up of the people, places, activities and things that are important to them when managing their health. We know from research and what service users tell us that developing and improving links with friends, family and the wider community is important to support people’s recovery. However, service users consistently feel that mental health services are not helping them with this as much as they would like.GENIE is an online tool which helps health professionals and service users to talk about social networks and uses responses to produce a personalised list of relevant local resources and sources of support in their area. GENIE has been used by people with Diabetes and Kidney Disease, and has been shown to help people manage their conditions better, improve quality of live and increase engagement with community activities. However, it has not yet been used in secondary mental health services.
We will work with 60 service users, professionals, family members and peer workers to adapt GENIE and decide how to use it best within secondary mental health contexts. We will review evidence about the best way to do this and will speak to 20 people who previously used social network interventions and 10 national key stakeholders involved in mental health about the issues that might affect its use. We will share our findings at 3 x 90 minute workshops with service users, professionals/peer workers and carers (8-10 per group) recruited through Merseycare to enable us to adapt GENIE and develop a one-day training course designed to support it’s use in mental health services. We will also work with these groups to design a future study to evaluate its benefits for people with mental health problems.
The study is funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme.
Summary of Results
Research shows that developing and improving links with friends, family and the community is important for mental health. Many people feel that health services could do more to help with this.Tools to improve social networks are available. One example is GENIE - a facilitated online tool that helps professionals and service users talk about social networks and identify support in their local area.
Aim: To decide the best way to use a social network intervention in mental health services. Methods: In Phase 1 we reviewed research to:
a) understand how well social network interventions like GENIE, may work for people with mental health difficulties.
b) identify what may influence their use.We spoke to 15 people who had used GENIE, and 5 national decision-makers/mental health influencers to learn from their experiences. In Phase 2 we held three workshops with 8 service users, 9 carers and 6 professionals to decide how best to use GENIE, for mental health.
Findings: People agreed there was an urgent need to use GENIE in mental health services. They did not feel it needed changes, but made a number of suggestions to improve its future use. GENIE was predicted to fit best in care planning and hospital discharge discussions, and in early intervention services. Facilitator training and carer involvement were recommended. We have designed a study to test GENIE in mental health services and are currently seeking funding to do this.
PPI: People with experience of mental health difficulties were directly involved in every element of this project and received training and mentoring for this.
Dissemination: With our PPI advisors, we will produce materials to raise awareness of the role of social networks and tools like GENIETM in mental health. We will share what we have learned via social media, blogs and artwork and in academic journals.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NE/0234
Date of REC Opinion
7 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion