Improving Social Climate in Secure Settings With a Compassion Focused Staff Intervention

NCT ID: NCT07135518

Last Updated: 2025-08-22

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 52 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-05-31
• Study Completion Date: 2025-09-05

Brief Summary

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a Compassion Focused Staff Support (CFSS) intervention in improving the social climate of correctional and forensic psychiatric institutions. The intervention is based on Compassion Focused Therapy and designed to support staff in managing stress, enhancing affect regulation, and strengthening compassion toward self and others. Three institutional units are included in the study. One unit is randomly selected to receive the full CFSS intervention, including a half-day introductory workshop and monthly staff support sessions over six months. A second unit serves as a control group and receives no intervention. A third unit receives only the initial workshop without follow-up sessions. The effect of the intervention is evaluated using a pre-test/post-test design. Outcomes include changes in staff-reported and client-reported social climate, assessed with validated questionnaires, as well as institutional data on critical incidents. The study aims to improve working conditions in secure settings and foster more compassionate, effective staff-client interactions.

Conditions

Social Climate; Compassion; Critical Incident; Staff Support; Workplace Wellbeing

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Intervention

Full CFSS Group (Workshop + Monthly Groups)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Compassion Focused Staff Support

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The Compassion Focused Staff Support (CFSS) intervention is designed to promote emotional resilience, compassion, and affect regulation. The intervention begins with a half-day introductory workshop covering the evolution-informed model of emotion regulation, the three-affect system framework, social mentalities, and the nature of compassion. This workshop provides psychoeducation and experiential exercises to introduce key concepts. Following the workshop, staff participate in six monthly 60-minute team sessions over a six-month period. These sessions involve reflective dialogue, experiential exercises, compassion-focused practices, and group-based exploration of emotionally challenging work situations.

Partial

Workshop-Only Group

Group Type: OTHER

CFT Workshop

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants attend a single half-day workshop providing psychoeducation and experiential exercises on compassion, affect regulation, and social mentalities based on Compassion Focused Therapy.

Control

No intervention

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Compassion Focused Staff Support

The Compassion Focused Staff Support (CFSS) intervention is designed to promote emotional resilience, compassion, and affect regulation. The intervention begins with a half-day introductory workshop covering the evolution-informed model of emotion regulation, the three-affect system framework, social mentalities, and the nature of compassion. This workshop provides psychoeducation and experiential exercises to introduce key concepts. Following the workshop, staff participate in six monthly 60-minute team sessions over a six-month period. These sessions involve reflective dialogue, experiential exercises, compassion-focused practices, and group-based exploration of emotionally challenging work situations.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

CFT Workshop

Participants attend a single half-day workshop providing psychoeducation and experiential exercises on compassion, affect regulation, and social mentalities based on Compassion Focused Therapy.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

Staff Participants:

• Employed at one of the participating correctional or forensic psychiatric units
• Aged 18 years or older
• Willing to provide informed consent

Client Participants:

• Residing in one of the participating correctional or forensic psychiatric units at the time of data collection.
• Aged 18 years or older.
• Capable of providing informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

Staff Participants:

• None (all eligible staff are invited to participate)

Client Participants:

• Not capable of providing informed consent (e.g., due to acute psychiatric crisis or cognitive impairment).
• Not deemed competent to participate by treatment team.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University Psychiatric Clinics Basel

NETWORK

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Andrea Canel

MSc

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

University Psychiatric Clinics Basel

Basel, , Switzerland

Countries

Switzerland

Other Identifiers

ID ClimACT CFSS

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id