NEON Trial

The Narrative Experiences Online (NEON) Trial aims to understand whether having online access to real-life mental health recovery stories can benefit people with experience of psychosis, or people with similar experiences e.g. hearing voices, hallucinations, non-consensual realities, unusual beliefs.

NEON has assembled a large and diverse collection of recovery narratives from across the world. We have also developed a web application, the NEON Intervention, which provides access to these recovery stories for participants.

The NEON Intervention works on smartphones, tablets and on laptops or desktop computers. We are now testing whether people benefit from viewing, hearing and reading these recovery stories through the NEON Intervention.

Participants who meet inclusion criteria will be individually randomised into one of two groups, who will either receive the intervention straight away (intervention group) or receive it in 12 months’ time (control group).

You will be asked to complete an online consent form and provide an email address. You will be asked to provide some basic information about yourself and your well being through an online survey. If you are allocated to the intervention group, you will then have access to the stories on the NEON Intervention, and will be asked to rate them using sliding scales. You can use it as little or as much as you like.

You will be asked to complete the online survey again after 1 week, 12 weeks and 52 weeks. In the first months of the trial, and after taking part for one year, you might also be asked to take part in an interview by telephone or secure video conference to help us understand what it feels like to take part. You don’t have to take part in an interview if you don’t want to, and you can continue participating in the trial even if you refuse.

This is an online trial; you will not be expected to meet with researchers in person or to visit health services. No diagnosis is needed to take part in our trials, and you will never be asked for access to your health records.