Tania Lecomte1, Catherine Hache Labelle1, Martin Lepage2, Amal Abdel Baki1; 1Université de Montréal, Canada, 2McGill University
Recovery from mental illness is not solely about mental health, work, independent living, and community integration - it also includes engaging in romantic relationships. Previous work from our team has enabled us to determine obstacles to romantic relationships in young heterosexual men with psychosis (see Pillay et al., 2016; Latour-Desjardins et al., 2018). These obstacles include: self-stigma, poor self-esteem, lack of social skills, social cognitive deficits, insecure attachment issues, lack of information regarding intimacy and sexuality, and difficulties in conflict resolution. We developed a twelve-session group intervention called 'Two is better than one', focusing on these topics in a cognitive behavioural and relational context. Objective: The purpose of this presentation is to describe the novel group intervention (using CBT, social cognitive, psychoeducation and social skills training) and to present preliminary quantitative and qualitative results on a pilot study. Method: 8 heterosexual male participants with psychosis, aged between 18 and 25, took part in this study. They each completed a battery of measures at 5 time points: baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks ,16 weeks, and 18 weeks, with the treatment being offered at 4 weeks, once a week for 12 weeks. We measured symptoms (BPRS), romantic and intimacy functioning (RRFS, FESFS), self-esteem (SERS-SF), self-stigma (ISMIS) and theory of mind (Stories task). We also included an open-ended interview regarding their experience in the group. The preliminary results will be discussed in detail. Overall, the group was considered very useful and increased prosocial and dating behaviors in the participants.
