Feasibility of "Mer Aktiv"

Official title

Mer Aktiv Rehabilitering - en Interventionsstudie Inom Vuxenpsykiatrin

Overview

The Mer aktiv rehabilitaion project aims to develop and evaluate a sustainable lifestyle intervention for individuals with mental ill health. By combining clinical experience, current evidence, and interprofessional collaboration between outpatient psychiatric services and community stakeholders, the project seeks to create conditions for a more active and balanced everyday life for individuals with mental ill health. The Mer Aktiv intervention focuses on breaking social isolation, promoting activity, and strengthening participants' empowerment through healthy lifestyle behaviours, group cohesion, and community-based activities. The aim of the intervention is to increase participation in everyday life and in society, as well as to support participants in remaining active after the intervention has ended. An increased level of activity, in which participants feel a sense of belonging within society, creates conditions for individuals to gradually move closer to the labour market over time. The project examines the feasibility and relevance of the intervention as a collaborative initiative between outpatient psychiatric care and community stakeholders, with the aim of refining the intervention and identifying potential barriers to implementation. The aim is to develop and evaluate a multiprofessional lifestyle intervention for individuals receiving outpatient psychiatric care.

Detailed description

For guidance, the framework for the evaluation of complex interventions will be used, along with the use of progression criteria to determine whether it is appropriate to move on to the next phase. To study feasibility, the group-based intervention will be evaluated in the form of a feasibility study, assessing aspects such as recruitment, adherence to the intervention, and data-collection. During Phase 1, the experiences of both staff and participants will be explored to refine the intervention based on their feedback.

Interventions

• Behavioral Mer aktiv rehabilitation - A group-based lifestyle intervention within psychiatric care
  Mer aktiv is a multiprofessional group-based intervention developed to meet a clinical need within outpatient psychiatric services and refined through collaboration among occupational therapists, physiotherapists, care workers, dietitians, and health coordinators across several clinics. The content of the group-based intervention Mer Aktiv includes: * Psychoeducation on lifestyle habits as part of active recovery (based on the six pillars of health), with a focus on physical activity, diet, sl

Primary outcome measures

• Level of daily occupations [Time frame: Pre-post, 6 months, 1 year]
• Satisfaction with daily occupations [Time frame: Pre-Post, 6 months.]
• Physical activity and sedentary behaviour [Time frame: Pre-Post, 6 months, 1 year.]

Secondary outcome measures (6)

• Occupational balance [Time frame: Pre-Post, 6 months, 1 year.]
• Anxiety [Time frame: Pre-Post, 6 months, 1 year.]
• Health / Depression [Time frame: Pre-post, 6 months, 1 year.]
• Sleep health [Time frame: Pre-post, 6 months, 1 year.]
• Recovery [Time frame: Pre-post, 6 months, 1 year.]
• Work ability [Time frame: Pre-post, 6 months, 1 year.]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Enrolled in adult outpatient psychiatric care
• Not engaged in any form of organized occupation, such as employment, studies, or work-based rehabilitation
• Physical exercise/structured physical activity outside the home less than once per week
• Participation in organized leisure activities less than once per week
• Able to walk independently without assistance
• No need for an interpreter

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to attend sessions twice per week (e.g., due to distance or lack of transportation)
• Ongoing individual psychotherapy
• Current or planned participation in another group-based intervention
• Ongoing substance use disorder, acute suicidality, or active psychosis (assessed based on the individual's capacity to manage symptoms and ability to participate in a group setting)

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

N/A

Model

Single group

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Health services research

Study locations

Center list to be confirmed — check the primary protocol.

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07556575 · 2025-08744-01

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗