HoPe: Home Treatment and Peer Support for Acute Mental Health Crisis

Home treatment (HT) is an effective treatment modality for patients with severe mental illness (SMI) in acute crisis that can often be considered equivalent to inpatient treatment in terms of treatment outcome. In Peer Support (PS) patients are supported by people with personal experiences in psychiatric crises. The current study investigates a combination of both approaches - a HT plus PS intervention - versus sole HT at different study sites throughout Germany. It is hypothesized that a peer-supported home-delivered treatment (HT plus PS) is more effective than a professional-led home-delivered treatment (HT alone) with respect to the time until hospital readmission, self-efficacy, psychosocial health, recovery orientation, internalized stigma and service satisfaction. Furthermore, it is hypothesized, that a peer-supported home delivered treatment (HT plus PS) is as effective as a professional-led home-delivered treatment (HT alone) with respect to disease severity and general functioning (secondary outcomes).