Feasibility and Acceptability of an Intervention to Support People With Severe Mental Illness in South Africa

Despite commendable progress in developing mental health systems in low-and-middle income countries, critical gaps remain, particularly the development of community-based systems of support for people living with severe mental illness (SMIs). This application will pilot a co-developed health system strengthening intervention programme in a South African district in order to determine its feasibility, appropriateness and limited efficacy in reducing readmission following discharge from acute psychiatric hospitalization. By generating preliminary data on the real-world implementation of a co-developed programme in low-resource contexts in South Africa, this application seeks to build on an existing foundation of research partnerships and local government collaboration to develop a transitional support intervention that could yield significant and tangible impacts on people living with SMIs in low-resource communities.

NCT Number	NCT07339462
Lead Sponsor	University of KwaZulu Collaborators: Columbia University, Universiteit Antwerpen, Medical Research Council, South Africa
Conditions	Mental Disorders, Severe
Enrollment	86 participants
Start Date	2025-08-01
Primary Completion	2026-06-01 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-08-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-14