Creating Welcoming Faith Communities for People With Serious Mental Illnesses

Temple University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Other

Treatments: Behavioral: Increasing Inclusionary Practices in Faith Communities

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT06336980

31021

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this intervention study is to test a behavioral intervention to increase inclusionary practices toward individuals with serious mental illness in faith communities. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. To determine if the behavior-based intervention leads to an increase in inclusionary practices (e.g., conducting outreach with mental health agencies).
2. To determine if the behavior-based intervention is effective in increasing inclusive practices by members and leaders of faith communities.
3. To determine if the intervention leads to a greater understand of mental illness and a decrease in stigmatizing beliefs by congregation members.
4. To determine if the intervention results in individuals with serious mental illness and their family members reporting less discrimination and increased inclusion.

Congregations will be asked to create an inclusion committee that will then work on developing systems and changing congregational practices to become more inclusive. All congregation members will be invited to a half-day training that will provide information on mental illness and inclusion, and will provide tips and strategies when they encounter situations or behaviors that are less familiar to them. All congregation members will be given the opportunity to participate in a survey about congregational practices.

Enrollment: 700 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• member or attendee of the faith community participating in the training

Exclusion criteria

• under the age of 18

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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700 participants in 1 patient group

Behavior intervention to increase inclusionary practices

Experimental group

Description:

Each congregation will participate in the intervention for 11-12 months

Treatment:

Behavioral: Increasing Inclusionary Practices in Faith Communities