Participatory Video as a Recovery-Oriented Intervention in Early Psychosis

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.