Improving Social Recovery in Psychosis version 1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Improving Social Recovery in Psychosis (ISRIP): A definitive randomised controlled trial and process evaluation of Social Recovery Therapy compared to treatment as usual for people with psychosis and severe social disability

  • IRAS ID

    346911

  • Contact name

    Joanne Hodgekins

  • Contact email

    j.hodgekins@uea.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

  • ISRCTN Number

    ISRCTN11089633

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    4 years, 3 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    People who experience psychosis often have difficulty living the lives they want to, e.g. working and doing leisure activities. Research suggests that less than half of people with psychosis achieve social recovery, which means being involved in these types of structured activities. An intervention which might help with this is Social Recovery Therapy (SRT). SRT is a talking therapy designed to help people do more activities. In SRT, a person with psychosis (participant) works with a psychological practitioner trained to deliver SRT (SRT therapist) for 9 months to identify activities they might enjoy and what makes doing these activities difficult. The SRT therapist helps the participant to increase their structured activity by supporting them to practice things they find difficult.

    In this project, we aim to find out whether SRT improves social recovery for people with psychosis compared to their usual NHS treatment (called Treatment As Usual, or TAU). We will recruit 350 people aged 18 years and older who have a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis and are doing less than 30 hours of structured activity per week. All participants will continue with their usual treatment (TAU). Half of the participants will also be offered SRT. The people who are offered SRT will be randomly selected, which means everyone will have an equal chance of receiving it.

    Everyone in the trial will complete assessments with trained Research Assistants (RAs) at the start of the study and 9 and 15 months later. The RAs will not know who was and was not offered SRT. We will use data from health records to follow-up participants at 24 months. We will ask participants about their experiences to understand more about how SRT works and how it might be used in mental health services.

  • REC name

    London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    26/LO/0203

  • Date of REC Opinion

    10 Apr 2026

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion