Community Empowerment for Mental Health
(COPE Trial)
Recruiting in Palo Alto (17 mi)
Age: 18+
Sex: Any
Travel: May Be Covered
Time Reimbursement: Varies
Trial Phase: Academic
Recruiting
Sponsor: Louisiana State University and A&M College
Disqualifiers: Under 18, Not in Together Baton Rouge
No Placebo Group
Trial Summary
What is the purpose of this trial?The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the impact of the Communities Organizing for Power through Empathy (COPE) intervention in adults in communities having recently experienced or at risk of experiencing disaster. The main questions it aims to answer are:
* How does the COPE intervention affect individual mental health?
* How does the COPE intervention affect protective factors like coping and social support?
* How does the COPE intervention affect community resilience?
* How does delivery of the COPE intervention in partnership with a broad-based organization affect participant recruitment and retention, as well as outcomes?
Participants will participate in the three session COPE intervention. Researchers will compare individuals who participate in the COPE intervention to individuals who participate in house meetings to see if the COPE intervention improves mental health, coping, social support and community resilience. Researchers will also examine factors that affect implementation and intervention delivery.
Do I need to stop my current medications for this trial?
The trial information does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications. It is best to consult with the trial coordinators for guidance.
What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment COPE: Communities Organizing for Power through Empathy?
Research suggests that participatory methods like COPE, which involve people with lived experience in the design and improvement of mental health services, can lead to empowerment, better quality of life, and improved health outcomes. These methods emphasize empathy, self-determination, and collaboration, which are key components of effective mental health care.
12345What makes the COPE treatment unique for mental health?
The COPE treatment is unique because it focuses on empowering communities to collectively address mental health challenges through empathy and local engagement, rather than relying solely on traditional medical approaches. It emphasizes community involvement, cultural context, and social justice to enhance mental health outcomes.
678910Eligibility Criteria
This trial is for adults over 18 who are staff or members of Together Baton Rouge. It's aimed at those involved in or affected by recent disasters, focusing on improving mental health and resilience.Inclusion Criteria
I am 18 or older and involved with Together Baton Rouge in the intervention.
Exclusion Criteria
I am over 18, a member or staff of Together Baton Rouge, and involved with the intervention.
Trial Timeline
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
2-4 weeks
COPE Intervention
Participants engage in a three-session brief group psychoeducational intervention delivered in groups of 8-15 people. Session 1 is 4 hours, Sessions 2 and 3 are 1.5 hours each, spaced 1 month apart.
3 months
3 sessions (in-person)
House Meeting Control
Participants in the control group attend a 1.5-hour group meeting delivered in groups of 8-15 people, spaced 1 month apart.
3 months
3 meetings (in-person)
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for changes in mental health, coping, social support, and community resilience at multiple timepoints post-intervention.
3 months
Participant Groups
The COPE intervention, which includes three sessions designed to enhance mental well-being, coping skills, social support, and community resilience after a disaster. Its effectiveness will be compared with standard house meetings.
2Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
Active Control
Group I: COPE InterventionExperimental Treatment1 Intervention
Is a three session brief group psychoeducational intervention. Session 1 is 4 hours, Session 2 and 3 are 1.5 hours. It is delivered in groups of 8-15 people with sessions spaced 1 month apart.
Group II: House Meeting ControlActive Control1 Intervention
Is a 1.5 hour group meeting delivered in groups of 8-15 people spaced 1 month apart.
Find a Clinic Near You
Research Locations NearbySelect from list below to view details:
Together Baton RougeBaton Rouge, LA
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Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
Louisiana State University and A&M CollegeLead Sponsor
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and MedicineCollaborator
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCollaborator
References
Consumer-run services research and implications for mental health care. [2020]Mental health consumers/survivors developed consumer-run services (CRSs) as alternatives to disempowering professionally run services that limited participant self-determination. The objective of the CRS is to promote recovery outcomes, not to cure or prevent mental illness. Recovery outcomes pave the way to a satisfying life as defined by the individual consumer despite repetitive episodes of disorder. Recovery is a way of life, which through empowerment, hope, self-efficacy, minimisation of self-stigma, and improved social integration, may offer a path to functional improvement that may lead to a better way to manage distress and minimise the impact of illness episodes. 'Nothing about us without us' is the defining objective of the process activity that defines self-help. It is the giving of agency to participants. Without such process there is a real question as to whether an organisation is a legitimate CRS or simply a non-governmental organisation run by a person who claims lived experience. In considering the effectiveness of CRSs, fidelity should be defined by the extent to which the organisation's process conveys agency. Unidirectional helping often does for people what they can do for themselves, stealing agency. The consequence of the lack of fidelity in CRSs to the origins of the self-help movement has been a general finding in multisite studies of no or little difference in outcomes attributable to the consumer service. This, from the perspective of the research summarised herein, results in the mixing of programmatic efforts, some of which enhance outcomes as they are true mutual assistance programmes and some of which degrade outcomes as they are unidirectional, hierarchical, staff-directed helping efforts making false claims to providing agency. The later CRS interventions may provoke disappointment and additional failure. The indiscriminate combining of studies produces the average: no effect.
The Participatory Zeitgeist: an explanatory theoretical model of change in an era of coproduction and codesign in healthcare improvement. [2020]Healthcare systems redesign and service improvement approaches are adopting participatory tools, techniques and mindsets. Participatory methods increasingly used in healthcare improvement coalesce around the concept of coproduction, and related practices of cocreation, codesign and coinnovation. These participatory methods have become the new Zeitgeist-the spirit of our times in quality improvement. The rationale for this new spirit of participation relates to voice and engagement (those with lived experience should be engaged in processes of development, redesign and improvements), empowerment (engagement in codesign and coproduction has positive individual and societal benefits) and advancement (quality of life and other health outcomes and experiences of services for everyone involved should improve as a result). This paper introduces Mental Health Experience Co-design (MH ECO), a peer designed and led adapted form of Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) developed in Australia. MH ECO is said to facilitate empowerment, foster trust, develop autonomy, self-determination and choice for people living with mental illnesses and their carers, including staff at mental health services. Little information exists about the underlying mechanisms of change; the entities, processes and structures that underpin MH ECO and similar EBCD studies. To address this, we identified eight possible mechanisms from an assessment of the activities and outcomes of MH ECO and a review of existing published evaluations. The eight mechanisms, recognition, dialogue, cooperation, accountability, mobilisation, enactment, creativity and attainment, are discussed within an 'explanatory theoretical model of change' that details these and ideal relational transitions that might be observed or not with MH ECO or other EBCD studies. We critically appraise the sociocultural and political movement in coproduction and draw on interdisciplinary theories from the humanities-narrative theory, dialogical ethics, cooperative and empowerment theory. The model advances theoretical thinking in coproduction beyond motivations and towards identifying underlying processes and entities that might impact on process and outcome. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12614000457640 (results).
Integrating service user participation in mental health care: what will it take? [2022]Participation in mental health care poses many challenges for mental health service users and service providers. Consideration of these issues for improving the integration of service user participation in mental health care can help to inform integrated care within health care systems, broadly. This paper argues for practicing greater empathy and teaching it, stigma reduction, changing what we measure, valuing the intrinsic aspects of care more, employing more people with lived experience within mental health services, raising the visibility of service users as leaders and our teachers within services and redefining integrated care from the service user perspective.
Engagement of mental health service users and carers in care planning - Is it meaningful and adding value? [2021]Consider whether mental health service users and carers meaningfully engage in care planning and whether care planning adds value to patient care.
Service user perspectives of community mental health services for people with complex emotional needs: a co-produced qualitative interview study. [2022]There is consensus that services supporting people with complex emotional needs are part of a mental health care system in which change is needed. To date, service users' views and co-production initiatives have had little impact on the development of interventions and care. This needs to change, and our paper evidences the experiences and perspectives of a diverse range of people on how community services can best address the needs of people with complex emotional needs.
The role of communities in advancing the goals of the Movement for Global Mental Health. [2016]This special section of Transcultural Psychiatry explores the local-global spaces of engagement being opened up by the Movement for Global Mental Health, with particular emphasis on the need for expanded engagement with local communities. Currently the Movement places its main emphasis on scaling up mental health services and advocating for the rights of the mentally ill, framed within universalised western understandings of health, healing and personhood. The papers in this section emphasise the need for greater attention to the impacts of context, culture and local survival strategies on peoples' responses to adversity and illness, greater acknowledgement of the agency and resilience of vulnerable communities and increased attention to the way in which power inequalities and social injustices frame peoples' opportunities for mental health. In this Introduction, we highlight ways in which greater community involvement opens up possibilities for tackling each of these challenges. Drawing on community health psychology, we outline our conceptualisation of "community mental health competence" defined as the ability of community members to work collectively to facilitate more effective prevention, care, treatment and advocacy. We highlight the roles of multi-level dialogue, critical thinking and partnerships in facilitating both the "voice" of vulnerable communities as well as "receptive social environments" where powerful groups are willing to recognise communities' needs and assist them in working for improved well-being. Respectful local-global alliances have a key role to play in this process. The integration of local community struggles for mental health into an energetic global activist Movement opens up exciting possibilities for translating the Movement's calls for improved global mental health from rhetoric to reality.
Help seeking and receiving in urban ethnic neighborhoods: strategies for empowerment. [2021]This paper presents findings from a National Institute of Mental Health funded research and demonstration effort aimed at addressing impediments to seeking and receiving help in two white ethnic communities. A community mental health empowerment model was developed and implemented in the target communities over a four year period. This model succeeded in building upon the strengths of individuals and neighborhoods to help overcome help seeking and receiving obstacles. Mechanisms were developed through a variety of means to enhance the ability of lay and professional helpers to interact and work with each other.
A consumer-constructed scale to measure empowerment among users of mental health services. [2022]A scale to measure the personal construct of empowerment as defined by consumers of mental health services was developed and field tested.
Properties of the Portuguese version of the empowerment scale with mental health organization users. [2020]This study examines the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Empowerment Scale (ES) to be used in the community/psychosocial mental health field. Authors also reviewed the properties of the development and cross-cultural adaptation of the ES. Because mental health services are required to encourage empowerment and recovery-oriented interventions, adequate empowerment-oriented outcome measures are needed to evaluate services and study interventions across countries.
Citizenship, Social Justice and Collective Empowerment: Living Outside Mental Illness. [2023]Citizenship is emerging as one of the world's leading models to shift mental health care from artificial psychiatric settings into more natural community settings by incorporating human rights. This paper describes a four-session roundtable series entitled Citizenship, Social Justice, and Collective Empowerment: Living Outside Mental Illness. These roundtables were part of the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC). They were built on the conviction that people who have lived experiences of mental health challenges and engaged in making community connections should be at the center of teaching about those experiences. Presenters shared their experiences about how they navigated stigma and discrimination on their way to community inclusion, belonging, and empowerment. The common theme across the series was the citizenship framework. The citizenship framework has inspired people to become involved in an individual and collective dynamic experience that connects them with the 5R's of rights, responsibilities, roles, resources, relationships, and a sense of belonging in society. The outcomes from the discussion on the webinars demonstrated that peer support could be a promising intervention to increase the sense of belonging in the community.