The UK’s first series of trials providing individuals with online access to mental health recovery stories has experienced unprecedented demand in light of the current pandemic.

The Narrative Experiences Online (NEON) study is testing whether online access to a collection of recovery stories can be helpful for people affected by mental health problems.

In the first six months, over 875 individuals have signed up to take part in three online trials, which are led by Mike Slade at the University of Nottingham and Institute of Mental Health:

  • The NEON Trial is for people with experience of psychosis in the last five years
  • The NEON-O Trial is for people with experience of non-psychosis mental health problems
  • The NEON-C Trial is for people who care for others affected by mental health problems

Trial participants receive immediate or delayed access to more than 500 stories of personal recovery drawn from 40 different collections and individuals, and everything is done online, which means that participation has not been disrupted by COVID-19.

The NEON-O Trial has already recruited more than four times its original target and has now been scaled up to almost 1000 participants; allowing more people to engage with the online intervention. This will enable the trial to provide much stronger evidence for the impact of receiving recovery narratives on people’s quality of life, and will shape future health service policy around the integration of lived experiences of mental health into health treatment.

“I could never have expected how impactful seeing my first recovery story would be…It was just what I needed to hear, when I was ready to hear it.”

NEON trial participant, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

To check your eligibility for the NEON trials go to https://recoverystories.uk and complete a short questionnaire. No diagnosis is needed to take part, and you don’t need to be in contact with the NHS. Stories of recovery can still be donated to the trials through https://www.researchintorecovery.com/donateastory.