TY - JOUR
T1 - Case Study Analysis of a Decision Coaching Intervention for Young Adults with Early Psychosis
AU - Thomas, Elizabeth C.
AU - Lucksted, Alicia
AU - Siminoff, Laura A.
AU - Hurford, Irene
AU - O’Connell, Maria
AU - Penn, David L.
AU - Casey, Irene
AU - Smith, Margaret
AU - Suarez, John
AU - Salzer, Mark S.
N1 - © 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Young adults with early psychosis often disengage from essential early intervention services (i.e., Coordinated Specialty Care or CSC in the United States). While decision support interventions improve service engagement, their use in this population is underexplored. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, fidelity, and potential impact of a decision coaching intervention for young adults with early psychosis in CSC services. Using a mixed-method, longitudinal, collective case study design, we assessed the intervention's impact on decision-making needs through the Decisional Conflict Scale and qualitative interviews. We also evaluated feasibility, fidelity, and acceptability through observations and feedback from interventionists and participants. Eight young adults from three CSC programs participated, showing variable engagement, with generally favorable fidelity and acceptability ratings. The Decisional Conflict Scale revealed mixed findings, while four themes from qualitative interviews emerged: Perspective and Information Seeking, Motivation and Prioritization, Empowerment and Confidence, and Critical Thinking and Evaluation. The findings suggest that training CSC providers—including peer specialists and clinicians—to deliver decision coaching with fidelity is feasible, well-received by young adults, and potentially impactful on decision-making. Replication in a larger controlled trial, addressing observed study limitations, is warranted. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04532034) on August 28, 2020, as Temple University Protocol Record 261047, Facilitating Engagement in Evidence-Based Treatment for Early Psychosis (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04532034?term=NCT04532034&draw=2&rank=1).
AB - Young adults with early psychosis often disengage from essential early intervention services (i.e., Coordinated Specialty Care or CSC in the United States). While decision support interventions improve service engagement, their use in this population is underexplored. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, fidelity, and potential impact of a decision coaching intervention for young adults with early psychosis in CSC services. Using a mixed-method, longitudinal, collective case study design, we assessed the intervention's impact on decision-making needs through the Decisional Conflict Scale and qualitative interviews. We also evaluated feasibility, fidelity, and acceptability through observations and feedback from interventionists and participants. Eight young adults from three CSC programs participated, showing variable engagement, with generally favorable fidelity and acceptability ratings. The Decisional Conflict Scale revealed mixed findings, while four themes from qualitative interviews emerged: Perspective and Information Seeking, Motivation and Prioritization, Empowerment and Confidence, and Critical Thinking and Evaluation. The findings suggest that training CSC providers—including peer specialists and clinicians—to deliver decision coaching with fidelity is feasible, well-received by young adults, and potentially impactful on decision-making. Replication in a larger controlled trial, addressing observed study limitations, is warranted. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04532034) on August 28, 2020, as Temple University Protocol Record 261047, Facilitating Engagement in Evidence-Based Treatment for Early Psychosis (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04532034?term=NCT04532034&draw=2&rank=1).
KW - Coordinated specialty care
KW - Emerging adults
KW - First-episode psychosis
KW - Peer support
KW - Shared decision making
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85213827788&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10597-024-01425-w
DO - 10.1007/s10597-024-01425-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 39746883
AN - SCOPUS:85213827788
SN - 0010-3853
JO - Community Mental Health Journal
JF - Community Mental Health Journal
ER -