A personal peer-support worker also improved satisfaction with mental health care.
Peer-supported self-management can help reduce readmission rates in individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, researchers reported.
Interestingly, there were also more adverse events reported among the control group, including two suicides.
"If the finding that repeat periods of acute care were reduced by around a quarter is replicated in routine settings, the burden on the acute care system could be reduced substantially, and service users would have greater opportunities for sustained recovery," the researchers explained. "This trial adds promising evidence for self-management interventions for people with significant mental health problems."
The analysis included 218 individuals randomly assigned to the peer-support intervention group compared with 220 in the control group. All participants were from six crisis resolution teams around England, who were recruited following a discharge by the crisis resolution team. Individuals were excluded if they were considered to be a high risk to others and unsafe for the peer-support workers.
The peer-support intervention included 10 sessions of 1 hour each led by a peer-support worker once a week. All had personal experience utilizing mental health services themselves, and could, therefore, relate to the individuals in the group. The aim was to assist the individual in completing a personal recovery workbook and provide encouragement and coping strategies. The workbook included information on "setting personal recovery goals, making plans to re-establish community functioning and support networks after a crisis, using the recent crisis experience to identify early warning signs and formulate an action plan to avoid or attenuate relapse, and planning strategies to maintain well-being once a crisis had abated," the researchers explained.