Living with mental health issues: citizen science project on self-management strategies

TL;DR

This study explores self-management strategies used by people with mental health issues, revealing new approaches and differences between groups.

Contribution

The study introduces a citizen science approach to identify self-management strategies, revealing novel insights into their use.

Findings

A co-created list of 77 self-management strategies was used by contributors with varying patterns across groups.

401 additional unique strategies were identified, including the unexpected frequent use of avoidance techniques.

Abstract

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.