Living with mental health issues: citizen science project on self-management strategies
People living with mental health issues use a range of self-management strategies. Most strategy recommendations have been developed by clinicians and researchers, so they may not reflect the full range of approaches used in practice. A citizen mental health science methodology can address this bias in strategy identification. We co-created a list of 77 pre-defined self-management strategies, and 1116 public contributors (n = 468 mental health service users, n = 497 lived experience not using services, n = 151 no lived experience) living in the United Kingdom completed an online survey identifying their use of each strategy, and identifying extra strategies. A wide range of pre-defined strategies were used by contributors, with differences in usage patterns identified between the three groups. 401 distinct extra strategies were identified. The active use of avoidance as a self-management strategy was more common than anticipated, including avoiding alcohol, social media, thinking about problems, other people, and mental health services.
Authors
- Emily Slade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6794-5461)
- Julie Repper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7020-3415)
- Stefan Rennick‐Egglestone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4187-011X)
- Mike Slade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7020-3434)
- Olamide Todowede (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5785-1426)
- Angela Sweeney (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6020-7490)
- Doreen S. Boyd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3040-552X)
- Stuart Moran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8753-7377)
- Dan Robotham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2968-2415)
- Colleen Ewart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5736-9800)
- Fred Higton
- A Hara
Institutions
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- Nord University (NO)
- Institute of Mental Health (GB)
- NIHR Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Unit (GB)
- Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre (GB)
- Medical Governance Research Institute (JP)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Wellcome Trust (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Mental Health Research
- Published
- 2025-10-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44184-025-00166-2
- Primary Topic
- Mental Health and Patient Involvement
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- UK Research and Innovation
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre