Project Meaningful Activities and Recovery (MA&R)

Participants Participants are people, diagnosed with mental illness and who uses services in either community mental health centres in Copenhagen, or live in supported accommodations, or receive psychiatric rehabilitation services in Copenhagen, Odense or Svendborg, three Danish cities.

Recruitment The initial contact with the participants is done by staff at the community mental health centres, supported housings or rehabilitation services in Copenhagen, Odense and Svendborg, talking with relevant candidates based on the research project's inclusion and exclusion criteria and informing them orally and in writing about the research project. This is supplemented, with the approval of the sites, by hanging posters in common rooms and possibly. presentation by researcher to the resident group / patients / citizen group at joint meeting to encourage self-referral. People who are interested in participating in the research project (hereinafter referred to as potential participants) contact the researcher or notify this to staff who communicate contact with researcher on behalf of citizens. An appointment is made for information interviews and pre-screening. Potential participants are invited to bring relatives or a contact person to the appointment. The oral information is given before the written one, and it is ensured that the information conversation takes place undisturbed. The participant information is provided in the form of a folder with adequate information about the experiment. The potential participant is informed that participation in the trial is voluntary and should not have any side effects, and that at any time they may exit the trial, without consequence for future support and the right to psychiatric treatment or rehabilitation services.

If the prospective participant, after being informed of the research project, is still interested in participating in the research project, the researcher conducts a functional level assessment at Mini-ICF-APP and asks the potential participant whether he or she is diagnosed with a mental illness. Based on this, it is decided whether the potential participant can be included.

Then, a consent form is handed out. Three-day reflection time (at least 24 hours) is offered. The written consent will be dated and numbered with the participant number. The participant will receive a copy while the original will be archived in a locked cabinet and scanned electronically and stored on a logged drive.

When written consent is given, the researcher obtains data by asking the participant, ie. self-reporting socio-demographic data and information on the mental illness. The researcher sends questionnaires to the participant, either electronically or as a letter, depending on what the participant prefers.