An Ethnographic Study of Sail-Based Adventure Therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Ethnographic Study of Sail-Based Adventure Therapy in Early Intervention for Psychosis.
IRAS ID
260889
Contact name
Mike Jackson
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 15 days
Research summary
The Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIPS) National Steering Group (NSG) are proposing a novel, sail-based adventure therapy intervention "Voyage of Recovery", for service users across Wales in August 2019. The voyages will last one week and be part a longer activity programme to support service users in their social and functional recovery. These are areas which present major difficulties to many people with psychosis.
Adventure therapy has been used successfully, often with "hard to engage" groups such as troubled adolescents or those recovering from drug and alcohol addictions with positive outcomes on self-concept, behaviour, attitude, locus of control and relationships. As yet there has been limited research with individuals in the early stages of psychosis.This proposed study aims to deepen our understanding of the possible benefits of the Voyage of Recovery with young people in the Early Intervention in Psychosis service, as well as possible challenges to both the young people and the staff on the voyage.
The study proposes to use an ethnographic research methodology in which the researcher will take part in the interventions as a crew member, collecting data in the form of field notes based on their observations and conversations with the young people and staff.
Participants in the study will include the young people from the EIPS, leaders from their support organisations and crew members from the Cirdan ship. There will be three voyages each lasting one week. As the research is observational, the participants will not be asked to engage with any additional procedures as part of the research other than reading the information and signing consent.
The findings are hoped to inform the development of the Voyage for Recovery as well as guide further research in this area.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
19/WA/0180
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion