Development and Evaluation of an Intervention (AiMH) for People With Severe Mental Illness Living in Supported Housing

People with severe mental illness (SMI) spend a great amount of time in their homes. The home is thus of vital importance for an everyday life with meaningful activities. Systematic description of possibilities for meaningful activity in Supported Housing (SH) is however lacking. Even more importantly, support to meaningful activity in the SH context is sadly lacking. That there is a need for support to activity for those who live in SH is partly evident from research, but has also become obvious through several contacts between the investigators' research group and staff working in SH settings. In a first step the investigators described how people with SMI use their time while being at home and how the participants perceive their possibilities for being active. Comparisons were made with people with SMI who had ordinary housing and got housing support. A mixed-methods approach with well-established rating scales and qualitative interviews was used. The current study aims are to: 1. Based on the findings from Step 1 above, develop an intervention for those who live in SH. The intervention goal is to increase the possibilities for satisfying engagement in activities in one's home. The intervention will also build on previous experiences form developing and evaluating interventions for the target group. 2. Investigate what changes people who participate in such an intervention will make regarding engagement in activities, satisfaction with activities, recovery from mental illness, self-rated health, and quality of life. 3. Investigate how users and staff perceive the SH services' possibilities to offer or stimulate to different types of activity, as well as their satisfaction with the new intervention. People with SMI are a sadly neglected group with respect to access to meaningful activities. Enriching supported with features that enable more meaningful activity in the home context could lead to gains for the individual (increased well-being) as well as society