Participatory Video as a Recovery-Oriented Intervention in Early Psychosis

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.

Conditions

• Psychotic Disorders
• Schizophrenia

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Participatory Video Intervention for Early Psychosis

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ProjectVideo Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• London Health Sciences Centre

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Western Ontario, Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Arlene MacDougall, M.Sc., M.D. · London Health Sciences Centre/University of Western Ontario

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

25 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-01-31

Primary Completion

2016-12-31

Completion

2016-12-31