Resident and staff perceptions of an activity- and recovery-based intervention in supported housing for people with severe mental illness – a longitudinal pilot study

BACKGROUND: People with severe mental illness who reside in supported housing (SH) and need a high level of assistance are at risk of an everyday life with little meaning and low community participation. Interventions to counteract that seem warranted, which was the rationale for this study. The aim was to investigate how residents and staff perceived an intervention designed to enhance meaningful everyday activity and personal recovery. METHODS: The intervention, termed Active in My Home (AiMH), was led by an occupational therapist. It consisted of five individual and three group sessions, and AiMH staff acted as supporters. Twenty-nine AiMH participants and 43 staff members were included in this un-controlled study with three measurement points – before (T1), at completion (T2), and 6–9 months after completion of AiMH (T3). The data collection was based on self-report questionnaires addressing perceptions of satisfaction, meaningfulness, and recovery-oriented support. RESULTS: The residents’ satisfaction with the SH per se was rated high (at 75% of the maximum score) and did not change over the study period from T1 to T3 (p = 0.544); nor did the participants’ perceived recovery-oriented support from the AiMH supporter (p = 0.235). Satisfaction with AiMH was rated by both participants and staff at T2. Their scores differed regarding general satisfaction (p = 0.008), staff scoring higher, but no differences were found regarding satisfaction with group sessions, individual sessions, or support of activity (p-values 0.062–0.836). The staff rated the SH unit’s provision of meaningful activities higher than the AIMH participants at T2 (p = 0.029) but not at T1 (p = 0.226) or T3 (p = 0.499). CONCLUSION: This study has offered some glimpses of how AiMH participants and staff perceived the AiMH intervention. It has also generated some ideas for better support for meaningful activity and recovery-oriented support in SH for people with mental illness, such as assisting SH residents in identifying activity opportunities and making activity choices when providing support for meaningful activity in the SH context. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05157854.