Trialling an optimised social groups intervention in services to enhance social connectedness and mental health in vulnerable young people (TOGETHER): Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial

Claire Vella; Clio Berry; Matthew J Easterbrook; Anna-Marie Bibby-Jones; Daniel Michelson; Leanne Bogen-Johnston; David Fowler

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0288676

Trialling an optimised social groups intervention in services to enhance social connectedness and mental health in vulnerable young people (TOGETHER): Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial

PLoS One. 2023 Aug 15;18(8):e0288676. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288676. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Claire Vella¹, Clio Berry², Matthew J Easterbrook¹, Anna-Marie Bibby-Jones³, Daniel Michelson⁴, Leanne Bogen-Johnston³, David Fowler¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
² Primary Care and Public Health, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom.
³ Research and Development Department, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Hove, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Background: Calls have been made to rethink the mental health support currently available for young people. This study aims to help re-focus and reduce the inaccessibility of mental health services by offering an adapted version of a theoretically-driven, evidence-based, guided psychosocial intervention known as 'Groups 4 Health' (G4H). To date, the G4H intervention has mainly been trialled in Australia, with promising positive effects on social connection, mental health and well-being. The present study examines the feasibility of running a randomised controlled trial when delivering the G4H intervention for young people in the UK.

Methods: The TOGETHER study is a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an adapted version of the G4H intervention. Participants are aged 16-25, currently experiencing mental health difficulties and recruited from mental health services. The target sample size is 30, with 15 in each trial arm. Participants are randomly allocated to either G4H plus treatment as usual, or treatment as usual alone. The primary outcomes of interest are the feasibility of recruitment, randomisation, data collection and retention to the study at 10 and 14 week follow up, as well as the acceptability, and accessibility of the study protocol and G4H intervention.

Discussion: The results of this study will indicate if further optimisation is required to improve the feasibility, acceptability and accessibility of the intervention and study protocol procedures as perceived by end users and practitioners. This offers a significant opportunity to support the local and national demand for accessible, innovative, and effective psychosocial youth mental health support.

Trial registration: ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN12505807). Registration date: 11/04/2022.

Copyright: © 2023 Vella et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Clinical Trial Protocol
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Feasibility Studies
Humans
Mental Health*
Psychosocial Support Systems
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Social Group*
Social Work

Associated data

ISRCTN/ISRCTN12505807

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey, Sussex. CV was awarded the funding as a part of an NIHR ARC KSS PhD Scholarship. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The funders did not and will not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.