Understanding the impact of supporting someone with psychosis who is actively suicidal in the community

Social support is a significant determinant of outcome in psychosis. People with higher levels of support have better long term outcomes. However, supporting someone with psychosis presents many challenges, particularly when there is a risk of suicide. With dwindling inpatient services, people at risk of suicide are more likely to be living at home where responsibility for managing this risk increasingly lies with relatives.

The CARMS (Cognitive Approaches to Remedying Suicide) is a multisite national study to test the efficacy and mechanism of a psychological therapy to reduce suicidality in people with psychosis. It will recruit 333 service-users with psychosis and suicidal thoughts / behaviours in the last 3 months.

This PhD will recruit family/friends of service users taking part in CARMS, and will explore the impact of suicidality on them, and develop an understanding of the strategies they develop to manage suicide risk. It offers a unique opportunity to explore how changes in symptom severity and suicidality impact on relatives’ outcomes over time. These findings will inform development of support services for family members.

Key questions (depending on interest of applicant) include:
1. What are the experiences of family/friends supporting someone with psychosis who is at risk of suicide? What are the implications for designing support for family/friends?
2. How do changes in service users’ mental health and suicidality impact on outcomes for the family member?
3. Does the CARMS intervention improve outcomes for family members?

Methods will include in-depth qualitative exploration of relatives’ experiences, and longitudinal analysis of changes in quantitative outcomes to assess the relationship between service user and carer outcomes. First the student will finalise the key questions and select the most appropriate analysis methods to address these questions. Through CARMS and Professor Elena Semino, we can offer additional specialist methodological support in linguistic analysis, broad thematic analysis, IPA, and longitudinal modelling.

Applications are made by completing an application for PhD Health Research October 2018 through our online application system. Closing date: midnight 28th February 2018.