The WELLFOCUS Study investigated wellbeing and psychosis, and was conducted at King’s College London from 2011 until 2016. It was funded by a grant from Guy’s and Thomas’ Charity (reference G101016). This page describes the academic papers produced from the study. The intervention developed in the WELLFOCUS Study is called Positive Psychotherapy for Psychosis, and has been published as a book.
The WELLFOCUS Manual can be found here
Translations: Cantonese
The WELLFOCUS study is informed by positive psychology:
Schrank B, Brownell T, Tylee A, Slade M (2014) Positive psychology: An approach to supporting recovery in mental illness, East Asian Archives of Psychiatry, 24, 95-103.
The understanding of wellbeing in mental health has changed over time:
Schrank B, Riches S, Coggins T, Tylee A, Slade M (2013) From objectivity to subjectivity: conceptualisation and measurement of well-being in mental health, Neuropsychiatry, 3, 525-534.
We investigated determinants of hope:
Schrank B, Bird V, Rudnick A, Slade M (2012) Determinants, self-management strategies and interventions for hope in people with mental disorders: systematic search and narrative review, Social Science and Medicine, 74, 554-564.
We developed a conceptual framework for understanding wellbeing in psychosis:
Schrank B, Bird V, Tylee A, Coggins T, Rashid T, Slade M (2013) Conceptualising and measuring the well-being of people with psychosis: systematic review and narrative synthesis, Social Science and Medicine, 92, 9-21.
We then developed a framework for understanding how wellbeing changes:
Schrank B, Riches S, Bird V, Murray J, Tylee A, Slade M (2014) A conceptual framework for improving well-being in people with a diagnosis of psychosis, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 23, 377-387.
We interviewed mental health staff to investigate how they viewed wellbeing for themselves and the people they worked with:
Schrank B, Brownell T, Riches S, Chevalier A, Jakaite Z, Larkin C, Lawrence V, Slade M (2015) Staff views on wellbeing for themselves and for service users, Journal of Mental Health, 24, 48-53.
We modified an existing positive psychology intervention – Positive Psychotherapy – for use in psychosis:
Riches S, Schrank B, Rashid T, Slade M (2016) WELLFOCUS PPT: Modifying Positive Psychotherapy for Psychosis, Psychotherapy, 53, 68-77.
We tested this new intervention in a randomised controlled trial:
Schrank B, Riches S, Coggins T, Rashid T, Tylee A, Slade M (2014) WELLFOCUS PPT – modified Positive Psychotherapy to improve well-being in psychosis: study protocol for pilot randomised controlled trial, Trials, 15, 203.
Therapist self-disclosure is involved in facilitating the intervention:
Riches S, Schrank B, Brownell T, Slade M, Lawrence V (2020) Therapist self-disclosure in positive psychotherapy for psychosis, Clinical Psychology Forum, 327, 14-21.
Forgiveness is a component of the intervention:
Riches S, Brownell T, Schrank B, Lawrence V, Rashid T, Slade M Understanding ‘forgiveness’ in the context of psychosis: A qualitative study of service user experience, Clinical Psychology Forum, in press.
The trial results indicated the intervention had a positive impact on symptoms:
Schrank B, Brownell T, Jakaite Z, Larkin C, Pesola F, Riches S, Tylee A, Slade M (2016) Evaluation of a positive psychotherapy group intervention for people with psychosis: pilot randomized controlled trial, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 25, 235-246.
The trial included a process evaluation to understand how the intervention was experienced:
Brownell T, Schrank B, Jakaite Z, Larkin C, Slade M (2015) Mental health service user experience of positive psychotherapy, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 71, 85-92.
The final treatment manual has been published:
Slade M, Brownell T, Rashid T, Schrank B (2017) Positive Psychotherapy for Psychosis, Hove: Routledge.
Findings from this and other recovery and wellbeing studies have been synthesised :
Slade M, Oades L, Jarden A (eds) (2017) Wellbeing, Recovery and Mental Health, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press