Participatory Video as a Recovery-Oriented Intervention in Early Psychosis
Condition: Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
MeSH terms: Schizophrenia; Psychotic Disorders; Mental Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Prior research has shown that people with psychotic illnesses, like schizophrenia, who make
      sense of and meaningfully integrate their psychotic experiences into their life story are
      more likely to recover from their illness. This process of developing a coherent narrative
      seems especially relevant for young people who are experiencing their first episode of
      psychosis. There is a need for interventions that can help facilitate the formation of
      recovery-oriented narratives, particularly in the early stage of illness. Participatory video
      is a group process that involves the facilitated creation of short documentary-style videos
      in which individuals are supported to reflect on and tell their personal stories. Although it
      has been used to foster self-identity, self-empowerment and "give voice" to a variety of
      marginalized and stigmatized populations, its use and evaluation as a clinical intervention
      has been limited.

      The purpose of this study is to determine whether the novel use of participatory video
      facilitate narrative development and promote recovery for individuals with early psychosis is
      an effective, feasible, and acceptable means of treating youth in the early stages of
      psychotic illnesses. Although the current study is hypothesis generating in nature, the
      investigators are expecting that participating in the Participatory Video intervention will
      result in improvements in narrative development, symptoms, self-perceived recovery,
      self-esteem, self-stigma, social functioning and hope. Additionally, the investigators expect
      that Participatory Video intervention will prove to be acceptable to participants and a
      feasible intervention for early psychotic disorders.
    

Detailed description: 
      The purpose of this study is to determine whether a novel 12-session Participatory Video
      intervention, is an effective, feasible, and acceptable means of treating people in the early
      stages of psychotic illnesses.

      We intend to randomly assign 20 patients being treated for psychotic illnesses in an early
      intervention program to a Participatory Video intervention group or treatment as usual group
      (control). Participants who are randomly assigned to the Participatory Video intervention
      will take part in 12 expert-facilitated group-based workshops over a period of 6 months, in
      which they will learn how to develop, film and produce a documentary-style video of their
      experiences with psychosis. At the end of the 12 workshops participants will have worked
      together to produce a group documentary video about their experiences with psychosis and,
      should they wish, individual videos about their own personal experiences with psychosis.
      Participants in the Participatory Video intervention group will receive the intervention in
      addition to any treatment they would usually receive through the early psychosis program.
      Those assigned to the treatment as usual group will continue to receive the standard care
      available to them in the early psychosis program.

      Participants will be evaluated at baseline, at 6-months (immediately post-intervention) and
      at 9 months (3 months post-intervention) on a number measures. Participatory Video
      intervention acceptability will be assessed through the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire and
      qualitative interviews, feasibility will be assessed through recruitment, consent and
      completion rates, and efficacy will be assessed on measures of symptoms, functioning,
      subjective recovery, metacognitive capacity and narrative development.
    

Intervention name(s): Participatory Video Intervention for Early Psychosis
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Participatory Video intervention consists of 12 semi-structured, 2 hour group workshops over the course of a 6-month time period. Through facilitated discussion, participants will learn how to effectively work collaboratively as a member of the video production team. Together, they will choose what story of their shared experience with psychosis they would like to tell through documentary-video and how they plan to share it. Participants will be trained to operate all equipment required to bring their vision to life. Individuals will also have the opportunity, during the Participatory Video process, to create and share their own video clips, independent of the group, allowing participants to share their own video-narrative with others (friends, family members, public) as a means of engaging in dialogue around their personal experience with psychosis.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Psychosis; Schizophrenia; Participatory Video; Narrative