SME Ambassadors Pilot Project Research Study

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Aims: To enhance mental well-being of adults by creating a positive, happy and joyful environment in the community. Targets: Adults aged 18-59 in Hong Kong. Methods: SME Ambassadors Pilot Project will adopt the public health and family-focused approach, under the brand name of Joyful@HK Campaign. Evidence-based and Evidence Generating approach with vigorous study design, both qualitative (e.g. focus groups) and quantitative (e.g. pre- and post- test), will be used to evaluate the overall programme effectiveness including follow-up of at least one month (best science). To ensure the practicability and sustainability of the community-based engagement project, we will engage community partners with strong track records of best practice to design, plan, and implement the intervention. This project will use innovative and integrated positive psychology and public health theories and methods to plan brief, simple, and cost-effective intervention. Significance: By using best science in the design and evaluation of intervention programme, and the best practice of the partners' skills, experience and strong connection with service targets in the community, the intervention, if proven to be effective, for promoting sharing, mind and enjoyment and enhancing mental well-being can be further developed and widely disseminated to and adopted by the practitioners in the health and social service sectors for replication and improvement to benefit the whole population.

Detailed Description
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SME Ambassadors Pilot Project is one of the six Community-based Mental Wellness Project for Adolescents and Adults, which aims at enhancing mental well-being of adolescents, adults and their families by creating a positive, happy and joyful environment in the community. The Project is funded by Health Care and Promotion Fund of Food and Health Bureau. SME Ambassadors Pilot Project is organized by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and led by School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong(HKU). The project will organize two train-the-ambassador workshops to train 60-80 SME ambassadors on positive thinking and understanding of adult mental health problem (in particular the mixed anxiety and depressive disorder) and mental well-being. The trained SME ambassadors will provide voluntary services and promote mental well-being messages to vulnerable groups, such as ex-mental illness people, new arrivals, etc. The major subjects of the SME Ambassadors Pilot Project are 60-80 SME ambassadors who aged 18-59. 10-12 service providers from NGO service units (community partners) and 100-120 voluntary service recipients will also be involved in the study. Pre- and post-test evaluation will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention programme. In the study, SME Ambassadors will be invited to complete questionnaires to measure their sharing, mind and enjoyment related behavioural indicators and invited to attend the focus group interviews to understand their experience during the programme; while community partners will be invited to attend individual interviews to collect their feedback and components on improving future community-based mental wellness programme. Evaluation will be conducted during the programme implementation stage. The effectiveness of the intervention, as well as the level of participation and ratings for the intervention will also be evaluated.

Official Title
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Community-based Mental Wellness Project for Adolescents and Adults: SME (Sharing, Mind, Enjoyment) Ambassadors Pilot Project

Conditions
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Mental Well-being, Happiness

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: SME Ambassadors training & program


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: 1) SME Ambassadors (major subjects): Adults who aged 18-59 Chinese speaking Able to complete study questionnaires/ focus groups (2) Service recipients (which may include children/adolescents) Chinese speaking Able to complete study questionnaires/ focus groups (3) Community partners Service provider and participating NGO service units Chinese speaking Able to complete study questionnaires/ individual in-depth interviews Exclusion Criteria: Those who cannot read Chinese Those who suffered from severe mental illness
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: SME Ambassadors training & program<br>- SME Ambassadors will participate in train-the-ambassador workshops and provide voluntary services and promote mental well-being activities to vulnerable groups. | Behavioral: SME Ambassadors training & program<br>* Two train-the-ambassador workshops: to train the ambassadors on positive thinking and understanding of adult mental health problem (in particular the mixed anxiety and depressive disorder) and mental well-being. The trained SME ambassadors will provide voluntary services and promote mental well-being messages to vulnerable groups, such as ex-mental illness people, new arrivals, etc.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes in participants' frequency of performing the suggested Sharing, Mind and Enjoyment (SME) related behaviours | The frequency of performing the SME (Sharing: share happy experience with others, help others, express care to others; Mind: recall the good memory, be grateful for what you already have, keep positive; Enjoyment: enjoy physical activity) related behaviours in the past 7 days will be assessed. The questions are rated 0-7 with 0 indicating none of this behavior happened in the past 7 days and 7 indicating this behavior happened every day in the past 7 days. | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes in personal happiness from baseline to three-month after baseline | Personal happiness will be assessed by Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS). SHS was rated on 7-point scale with 1 indicating no happiness at all and 7 indicating extreme happiness. To score the scale, the 4th item will be coded reversely and mean of the 4 items will be computed. | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in mental well-being from baseline to three-month after baseline | Mental well-being will be assessed by validated Chinese version of 7-item Warwick Edinburgh Well-being Scale. Each item ranges from 1 to 5 and the scale will be scored by first summing the score for each of the 7 items and then transforming the total score for each person according to a conversion table. | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in family relationship from baseline to three-month after baseline | Self-perceived understanding, intimacy, and family communication will be assessed by three questions (rated 0-10). | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in individual and family health from baseline to three-month after baseline | Self-perceived health, at the individual and family level will be assessed by two questions respectively (rated 0-10). | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in family happiness from baseline to three-month after baseline | Self-perceived happiness, at the individual and family level will be assessed by two questions respectively (rated 0-10). | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in family harmony from baseline to three-month after baseline | Self-perceived family harmony will be assessed by a single question (rated 0-10). | T1: baseline; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Changes in knowledge and perception of mixed anxiety and depressive disorders | Knowledge and perception of mixed anxiety and depressive disorders will be assessed by 4 questions (2 questions about understanding of symptoms, 1 about the intention of help seeking, 1 about support seeking from families) rated 0-10. | T1: baseline; T2: immediate post intervention; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| Satisfaction towards SME Ambassador Pilot Project | Satisfaction towards programme will be assessed by conducting focus group and program evaluation measures (general satisfaction, self-perceived helpfulness and likely-to-recommend level) rated 0-10. | T2: immediate post intervention; T3: one-month follow-up after baseline; T4: three-month follow up after baseline | 
| The social impact of the community-based engagement project | The social impact of the community-based engagement project will be evaluated by conducting community stakeholders' in-depth interviews. | Up to four months | 
| The process of community based intervention programme | Assessed by a Process Evaluation on-site observation form, and a series of checklists including Resources input record sheet, Participants' attendance form, Programme rundown, Attendance record form, and NGOs' final report. The components of process evaluation, including context, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity and recruitment will be assessed. | Up to four months | 
| Outcomes of community engagement process | Outcomes of community engagement process will be assessed by a self-designed questionnaire survey. | Up to four months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Mental health, Mental well-being, Community-based engagement, Positive psychology, Public health approach