Surviving stigma pilot study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    A pilot of a Recovery College Course for Mental Health Stigma: A feasibility study

  • IRAS ID

    269058

  • Contact name

    Claire Henderson

  • Contact email

    Claire.1.henderson@kcl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    King's College London

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 6 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    The research aims to answer the question, how feasible and acceptable is this new stigma course for service users, carers and staff? The aim is to co-develop and co-deliver a novel mental health stigma workshop with peer trainers from the SLaM Recovery College. Mental health stigma has been found to impact negatively on many different areas in individual recovery. Individuals with mental health difficulties may experience stigma from society, organisations and individuals. Mental health self-stigma refers to the process of internalising attitudes of stigma and identifying with negative stereotypes about mental illness. This workshop aims to support individuals in building strategies and skills to manage with mental health stigma through building on existing material and combining approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and narrative approaches.

    All students registered at SLaM Recovery College may be eligible. The course will be open to mental health service users who will be invited to nominate a carer and/or mental health staff involved in their care to attend with them. Students that provide consent to participate in this study will take part in 6 weekly (2 to 2.5 hours) face-to-face group sessions of this course. They will also have a pre-group meeting of up to 1 hour, a month follow-up telephone or face-to-face session; and would be required to complete some questionnaires and telephone screening. Participation in this study does not make service users ineligible for routine care; they can withdraw from this study at any time. Should participants withdraw from the study due to distress or present in acute distress, they will be signposted to interim support as is routinely offered by the NHS.

    The study will take place at South London and Maudsley Recovery College. All expenses will be covered by the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology Training Programme at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). The study will be completed by September 2021.

  • REC name

    North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/NW/0111

  • Date of REC Opinion

    12 May 2020

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion