A co-produced community engagement workshop in South London to reduce psychosis related stigma

Background Early access to services is essential for those suffering a psychotic illness or at risk for the condition. Lack of knowledge of services and public stigma are major barriers to care and are associated with increased duration of untreated psychosis and delays in those at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P) from accessing support. Education and contact programmes have shown promise in reducing stigmatizing views, however, few have been co-produced and delivered by service users and clinical staff. A three-hour co-produced educational workshop was developed and delivered by service users and Outreach and Support in South London (OASIS) staff. The aim was to assess the feasibility of delivering a co-produced workshop to youth community workers, to see if it improved knowledge of psychosis, attitudes to mental health services and reduced stigma towards people with psychosis as well as seeing if the workshop increased community referrals to OASIS. Method Educational workshops were developed by community stakeholders and service users. Pre- and post-workshop questionnaires assessed knowledge of psychosis, attitudes towards mental health teams and stigma towards individuals with a psychotic disorder. Participants’ and service users’ views on the workshop were explored through two focus groups. Results 9 workshops were delivered to 75 community participants. Following the workshop participants’ questionnaire scores showed improvements in knowledge of psychosis, improved attitudes towards mental health teams and a reduction in stigmatizing views towards people with psychosis. The workshop was overwhelmingly well received with 97% agreeing with the statement that they learnt something valuable from the workshop. Referrals to the OASIS service increased by 22% following the workshops. Conclusion The co-produced educational workshop designed and delivered by service users and OASIS staff was successful in improving participants’ knowledge, attitudes and reducing stigma. We observed an increase in the rate of referrals to the OASIS service, although it is difficult to whether this was due to the workshops or to other outreach activities. Future research should examine whether these effects are long-lasting and explore online delivered workshops to reach more participants in the wider community. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was supported by the a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BMC) funding for Research Opportunities for Nurses and Allied Health Professions awarded to CG and IA. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, KCL, SLaM, NIHR or the Department of Health. The funder had no influence on the design of the study or interpretation of the results. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This work was assessed by the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust Research and Development department, who deemed that the work was a service improvement project and not research, thus it did not need ethical approval. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors