Lay summary
Psychosis is a disabling condition that has significant impact on quality of life and health and wellbeing, with disparities in physical health in particular being described as the ‘scandal of premature mortality’. Psychosis affects approximately 50,000 New Zealanders and disproportionately affects Māori, with an associated burden of care upon whānau. This award will support Dr Matthew Jenkins and his co-investigators to deliver and evaluate a previously co-designed 12-week health and wellbeing programme for rangatahi living with psychosis within early intervention services that focuses on improving health knowledge, supporting positive health behaviours, and enhancing social connection. The primary outcome variable for this project is participants’ programme engagement, with secondary outcome variables including participants’ holistic wellbeing, self-efficacy, self-reported health behaviours (e.g., physical activity, healthy eating), and health knowledge. Qualitative and quantitative data will be used to assess the programme and guide future intervention development.