Clinical trial NCT02950571: RCT Examining the Effectiveness of Digital Picture Frame Use in Inpatient Setting
Official title: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effectiveness of Digital Picture Frame Use on the Long Term Inpatient Experience
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Schizophrenia
Psychosis
Psychosis NOS
Lead sponsor: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-11-01
Enrollment: 33
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: This study will be a randomized controlled trial that investigates the effectiveness of digital picture frames (DPF) installed in inpatient rooms on long stay inpatient wards servicing schizophrenia clients at CAMH. The effects on client experience will consider the domains of self-concept, interactions with healthcare staff, perception of space, and implications for the recovery process. The comparison of inpatient client experience with DPFs versus a control group (Treatment as Usual - TAU), offers the opportunity to examine the effectiveness of this type of environmental adaptation. This trial builds upon earlier work that demonstrated the feasibility of DPFs in this context.

Detailed description: Long term stays in mental health facilities have been shown to have unique challenges and implications. To a considerable extent these challenges grow out of the stigmatized nature of severe mental illnesses (SMI) such as schizophrenia. The social and self-stigma surrounding SMI can have major effects on those affected including decreased self-esteem, self-deprecation, and the development of a self-concept defined by the illness. When stigmatized interpretations of mental illness are internalized, those affected can find it very challenging to sustain non-illness identities and can ultimately result in the loss of non-illness related aspects of self-concept. Inpatient contexts are particularly challenging in this regard, with non-illness oriented identities very difficult to sustain given considerations of power differentials with providers, the reduction of autonomy and choice, and the removal of the individual from environments that are demonstrative of non-illness aspects of self.

Accordingly, a randomized controlled trial design will be used to consider the question: Does having a DPF in psychiatric inpatient unit rooms lead to improvements in interactions with the clinical team, perceptions of enhanced quality of physical space, and an improvement in the sustaining of non-illness aspects of self-concept? While the promising feasibility study findings might suggest hypotheses of improvement in these domains, we will consider this study exploratory given the complex environments inpatient units represent in the study of care quality and outcomes and the modest scope of this intervention. Finally, we will continue to collect feasibility data qualitatively, to inform further refinement of metrics and otherwise consider enhancements in intervention and research design.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* All participants will have severe mental illness (SMI) defined as diagnosis with a major mental illness (in practice, will be primarily schizophrenia spectrum) and inherent to hospital admission will be substantive contact with services and disability affecting day-to-day functioning (Ruggeri, Leese, Thornicroft, Bisoffi, \& Michelle, 2000).
* Admitted to a CAMH inpatient unit, specifically units 2-2 and 2-3, with an anticipated length of stay of 4 weeks or more, as determined by the clinical team
* Chart diagnosis of a major mental illness
* Determined appropriate for study by staff psychiatrist and clinical team (capacity to consent confirmed, no precautions against having the device in the participant's room indicated)
* 18 years of age or older
* Proficiency in English

Exclusion Criteria:

* Do not meet the above criteria

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Recovery Self Assessment (RSA; O'Connell et al., 2005)
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8; Attkisson et al., 1995)
timeFrame: After 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Empowerment Scale (Rogers et al., 1997)
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Modified Engulfment Scale (McCay & Seeman, 1998)
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965)
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Scale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship (STAR; Mcguire-Snieckus et al., 2007)
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Satisfaction with the physical environment of the inpatient unit
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Change in Satisfaction with the rooms on the inpatient unit
timeFrame: Baseline and after 4 weeks (post intervention)
measure: Semi structured interviews
timeFrame: After 4 weeks (post intervention)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
name: Sean A Kidd, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: O'Connell M, Tondora J, Croog G, Evans A, Davidson L. From rhetoric to routine: assessing perceptions of recovery-oriented practices in a state mental health and addiction system. Psychiatr Rehabil J. 2005 Spring;28(4):378-86. doi: 10.2975/28.2005.378.386.
citation: Attkisson, C. C., & Greenfield, T. K. (1995). The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) scales. Outcome assessment in clinical practice. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 2-10.
citation: Rogers ES, Chamberlin J, Ellison ML, Crean T. A consumer-constructed scale to measure empowerment among users of mental health services. Psychiatr Serv. 1997 Aug;48(8):1042-7. doi: 10.1176/ps.48.8.1042.
citation: McCay EA, Seeman MV. A scale to measure the impact of a schizophrenic illness on an individual's self-concept. Arch Psychiatr Nurs. 1998 Feb;12(1):41-9. doi: 10.1016/s0883-9417(98)80007-1.
citation: Rosenberg, M. (1965). Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE). Acceptance and commitment therapy. Measures package, 61.
citation: McGuire-Snieckus R, McCabe R, Catty J, Hansson L, Priebe S. A new scale to assess the therapeutic relationship in community mental health care: STAR. Psychol Med. 2007 Jan;37(1):85-95. doi: 10.1017/S0033291706009299. Epub 2006 Nov 9.