Peer Support Experience for Patients Discharged From Acute Psychiatric Care

The aim of the project is to conduct a four arm randomized controlled pilot trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative peer support program that incorporates leadership training, mentorship, recognition, reward systems and supportive/reminder text messaging for patients discharged from acute (hospital) care. Methods and analysis: This is a prospective, rater-blinded, four arm randomized controlled trial. 180 patients discharged from acute psychiatric care in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada will be randomized to one of four conditions: treatment as usual follow-up care, enrollment in usual follow-up care plus daily supportive/reminder text messages, enrollment in a peer support system plus daily supportive/reminder text messages or enrollment in a peer support system without daily supportive text messages. Patients in each group will complete evaluation measures (e.g., recovery, general symptomatology, functional outcomes) at baseline, six and twelve weeks \& six and 12 months. Service utilization data and data regarding the experience of the peer support workers will also be collected. Data will be analyzed with descriptive statistics, repeated measures, and correlational analyses. We hypothesize that patients enrolled in the peer support system plus daily supportive/reminder text messages condition will achieve superior outcomes in comparison to other groups. Peer support worker experience will be derived from exploratory data analysis.