Project details

Summary

What is the study about?

It is important for everyone to feel they have a fulfilling and safe sex life. This is no different for people with a severe mental illness and can be an important part of building a life after recovery.  
Having good sexual health includes:

• Being free from sexually transmitted infections
• Being able to express your sexuality and sexual identity
• Feeling safe and respected in intimate relationships  
• Being in control of choices you make and what you feel comfortable with 

We think there are a number of areas that could help improve a person's sexual health, including: 

• Access to contraception and family planning 
• Understanding risky sexual behaviours and sexual health implications
• Keeping safe from sexual infections
• Having a fulfilling relationship free from abuse 

What are you trying to find out?

Our study team wants to find out if sexual health information sessions with a specially trained health professional can improve the sexual health compared to usual care in people with a severe mental illness. These sessions would involve talking through sexual health issues, providing information about healthy sexual activities, and discussing where to get help and advice. 
 
Information about the study can also be found on our website: www.morerespect.co.uk.

Who is it for?

People aged 16 and over with a severe mental illness who receive care from an NHS community mental health service that has agreed to be part of this study are being invited to take part.  

What does taking part involve?

You can find out more information about taking part in this study by downloading the key documents at the top of this page. You can also find out more information on the project website here.

For us to be able to find out if receiving sexual health information sessions improves sexual health in people with a severe mental illness, we need to collect and compare information from two groups of people: 1) people who attend sexual health information sessions with a specially trained health professional, along with continuing their usual care and 2) people who do not attend sexual health information sessions and continue with their usual care. Both types of groups are equally important to us.  
 
If you are eligible to take part, you will be randomly allocated to be in either the sexual health information sessions group or the usual care group. A computer programme will randomly choose which group you will be in. This is a bit like flipping a coin to decide. It means you have an equal chance of being in either of the two groups.  

Sexual health information sessions group: If you are allocated to be in the sexual health information sessions group, in addition to continuing with your usual care and support that is usually available to you, a health  professional trained to deliver the sexual health information sessions will contact you to arrange a day and time to meet. This may be a face-to-face meeting or a video call meeting. After this, you will organise to meet on two more occasions.

Each time you meet with the health professional they will discuss things with you, such as:

• Understanding sexually transmitted infections
• Condoms and contraception
• Safer relationships, including assertiveness skills and negotiating skills relating to the type of sexual relationships you want to have

Each meeting will last for up to 1 hour.

Usual care group: If you are allocated to be in the usual care group (sometimes also known as the ‘control 
group’), you will continue with your usual care and support that is usually available to you. In other words, it is ‘business as usual’ and no additional care or treatment will be provided as part of the study. However, being in the usual care group is an important role in the study and your continued involvement helps us to assess whether the sexual health information sessions are helpful in addition to usual care. 

Everyone taking part in the study will be asked to complete questionnaires to collect data on information related to sexual health, including being asked about sex, relationships and contraception.  A member of the study team will contact you at the beginning of the study and then 3, 6, 9 and 12 months later. They will organise a meeting with you. This may be a face-to face meeting or a video call meeting. They will go through the same set of questions each time. Some of the questions can be self-completed by you and some questions the study team  will ask you. This will take approximately 1 hour, but you can stop for a break at any time.

We would like to interview a few people who agree to take part in the study. These interviews will help us understand what works in terms of addressing sexual health needs for people with a severe mental illness. Everyone taking part will be asked if they would like to be interviewed.

Why is it important? 

We cannot promise that taking part in this study will help you directly. However, some people who took part in a previous study told us that they found taking part interesting, thought provoking, and informative. The results of this study may help us find out how we can improve sexual health for people with a severe mental illness. 

How can I find out more?

You can find out more information about taking part in this study by downloading the key documents at the top of this page. You can also find out more information on the project website here.

If you are interested in taking part in this study, or have questions for the research team, click the button below to email the research team:

Email the research team