Social Inclusion in Mental Health
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development and Validation of a measure of Social Inclusion - The SInQUE
IRAS ID
182030
Contact name
Gillian Mezey
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Social inclusion refers to the ability of an individual to participate fully in the activities within their community that they would like to participate in. Lack of social inclusion, is a significant problem for individuals who have experienced mental health problems and can exacerbate symptoms or delay recovery. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has recently argued that improved social inclusion may be as important an outcome as symptom reduction.
In this study we shall use a questionnaire (the SInQUE; Social Inclusion Questionnaire – User Experience) which we developed and piloted two years ago, to explore experiences of social inclusion in 200 mental health service users, from two NHS Trusts in South London and North London.
The current study will allow further testing of the SInQUE with a larger number of mental health service users to establish whether it has wider applicability, reliability and usefulness and to understand more about how different mental health conditions may impact on individuals’ ability to participate and be included in all the areas of life that they wish to be.In order to examine the extent to which social exclusion is related to having a mental health problem (as opposed to other family or environmental factors) we shall also be recruiting siblings who are unaffected by mental health problems, to complete a slightly adapted version of the SInQUE and explore their understanding of the problems of social exclusion and potentially useful ways of promoting social inclusion.
Finally we shall conduct in depth interviews with 12-15 service users and will run four focus groups with mental health professionals and one with siblings, to explore their views on interventions or services that could improve social inclusion, with the aim of modelling an intervention to improve mental health and social outcomes for people with mental health problems.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1778
Date of REC Opinion
6 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion