Up To Me: Erasing the Stigma of Mental Illness on College Campuses

University of South Florida

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Severe Mental Illness; Psychiatric Disorders; Behavior Disorders; Mental Illness; Psychiatric Diagnosis; Psychiatric Diseases; Psychiatric Illness

Treatments: Behavioral: Up To Me Intervention + Booster; Behavioral: Up To Me Intervention + No Booster

Study type: Interventional

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

Identifiers

NCT05784818

90IFRE0056-01-00

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is a three-lesson, disclosure-based stigma reduction program meant to reduce barriers to community living and participation for college students with psychiatric disabilities. The goal is to improve community living and participation of individuals with psychiatric disabilities within their postsecondary community using the Honest Open Proud (HOP) program. There are 3 specific objectives of the project:1) evaluate program fidelity, 2) assess program feasibility, and 3) conduct a randomized controlled trial of the HOP program with college students with mental illness to examine its efficacy. Anticipated outcomes include increases in 1) community integration, 2)self-esteem and self-efficacy, 3) empowerment and self-determination, 4) disclosure of mental illness in order to obtain needed support, and 5) care seeking/service engagement for mental illness. Ultimately, we expect to see increased academic persistence and achievement among HOP program completers.

Enrollment: 201 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• College students enrolled at USF
• Over 18 years of age
• Individuals with psychiatric disability(ies) who feel shame regarding their mental illness or keep it secret

Exclusion criteria

• Individuals with a sole substance abuse disorder
• Individuals who plan to graduate before the conclusion of the data collection period; for intervention participants, this would be a graduation date within 6 months of starting the intervention.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Sequential Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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201 participants in 3 patient groups

Intervention + No Booster

Experimental group

Description:

This arm will have n=67 participants. The Up To Me behavioral intervention will be administered via 2-hour sessions over three consecutive weeks. During these sessions, participants will complete worksheets from the Up To Me workbook.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Up To Me Intervention + No Booster

Intervention + Booster

Experimental group

Description:

This arm will have n=67 participants. The Up To Me behavioral intervention will be administered via 2-hour sessions over three consecutive weeks. During these sessions, participants will complete worksheets from the Up To Me workbook. Additionally, participants randomized to this arm will complete an additional session 4 weeks after the third session of the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Up To Me Intervention + Booster

Waitlist Control

No Intervention group

Description:

This arm will have n=67 participants. Those randomized to this arm will be engaged in "treatment as usual", participating in the same services and activities that they were engaged with prior to recruitment into the study.