There is strong support for the benefits of involving families and family interventions in the treatment of youth with psychosis. Despite this, there are huge implementation gaps, with family involvement in treatment reducing over time, poor uptake of family interventions and families feeling excluded from treatment. To understand why this is the case, we need to study the views of youth with psychosis, their families and treatment providers. Our discrete choice experiment is doing this.
A discrete choice experiment studies people’s choices to understand their preferences. In in real life, we are often choosing between options that vary in combinations of features. In fact, we are weighing different combinations based on the features we most and least prefer.
​
Here is an example. Each option represents a different type of breakfast food. Imagine you have to choose ONE option that best reflects the breakfast food you prefer.

Partners & Collaborators
-
Clinique JAP, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), QC
-
Clinique Notre Dame des Victoires, CIUSSS de la Capitale Nationale, QC
-
Connec-T, Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal (IUSMM)
-
First-episode psychosis program, Jewish General Hospital, QC
-
Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis, McGill University (PEPP-MUHC), QC
-
Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis, Douglas Mental Health University Institute (PEPP-Montreal), QC
-
Today not tomorrow (first-episode psychosis program), Chatham-Kent, Ontario
In our pan-Canadian study, we are asking young people with psychosis, their families/carers and service providers (doctors, case managers, nurses, peer support providers) with experience in early intervention services for psychosis to answer a one-time online survey to understand their preferences (how, how often, etc.) for involving families in early intervention services. We want to also study if these stakeholder groups have different preferences.
Our study will arrive at recommendations for involving families in early intervention services for psychosis. Because they will be derived from the views of all stakeholder groups choosing between real-world options, our recommendations are more likely to be actionable and effective. How cool is that!
We are recruiting for this study. If you want to participate or know someone who may want to participate, please email us at kevin.macdonald@douglas.mcgill.ca.
Funders
