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Peer and Text Message Support to Reduce Readmission Rates for Patients Discharged From Acute Psychiatric Care

NCT05133726 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 1132

Last updated 2025-08-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Avoidable hospital readmissions are a pressing problem for our healthcare system. They lead to substantial human suffering and higher financial costs. Most discharged psychiatric inpatients in Alberta are offered follow-up appointments with Alberta Health Services (AHS) Addiction and Mental Health (AMH) community providers. Patients often wait 28-38 weeks for their first appointment, which leads many to miss their first appointments, and increases the likelihood of relapse. As a result, patients discharged into the community are readmitted to the Emergency Department (ED). To address this significant revolving door, the investigators will implement a low-cost, evidence-based system that delivers daily supportive texts to patients' mobile phones. The text messages developed by experts and service users, based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles. Our proposed program also includes peer support from previous mental health patients who have had similar challenges as participants, but are now in recovery. In this way, the investigators aim to reduce the psychological treatment and support gap for AMH patients who have been discharged from acute care and are scheduled to receive mental health and psychiatric treatment from A\&MH services after a long wait. Our pilot test of these interventions provide evidence that psychiatric readmissions, and emergency department visits can be reduced by 10-25% if implemented at scale in Alberta, thus resulting in cost-savings for individuals and the province.

Conditions

  • Psychiatric Illness

Interventions

OTHER

Text4Support

Daily supportive text messages

OTHER

Peer support

Meeting with peers who have lived experiences with similar diagnoses but are in recovery

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Alberta Innovates Health Solutions

    collaborator OTHER

  • University of Alberta

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Vincent Agyapong, MD,PhD · University of Alberta

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Model
SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-03-01
Primary Completion
2024-03-31
Completion
2026-06-30

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05133726 on ClinicalTrials.gov