Improving Social Climate in Secure Settings With a Compassion Focused Staff Intervention

NCT07135518 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: ID ClimACT CFSS
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 52
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a Compassion Focused Staff Support (CFSS) intervention in improving the social climate of correctional and forensic psychiatric institutions. The intervention is based on Compassion Focused Therapy and designed to support staff in managing stress, enhancing affect regulation, and strengthening compassion toward self and others. Three institutional units are included in the study. One unit is randomly selected to receive the full CFSS intervention, including a half-day introductory workshop and monthly staff support sessions over six months. A second unit serves as a control group and receives no intervention. A third unit receives only the initial workshop without follow-up sessions. The effect of the intervention is evaluated using a pre-test/post-test design. Outcomes include changes in staff-reported and client-reported social climate, assessed with validated questionnaires, as well as institutional data on critical incidents. The study aims to improve working conditions in secure settings and foster more compassionate, effective staff-client interactions.

Conditions

Social Climate; Compassion; Critical Incident; Staff Support; Workplace Wellbeing

Keywords

Compassion Focused Therapy; Staff Support; Forensic Psychiatry; Social Climate; Workplace Wellbeing; Secure Settings; Staff Intervention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Staff-Perceived Social Climate

  Staff perceptions of social climate will be assessed using the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES), a self-report questionnaire.

  T0 (6 months before start of the intervention), T1 (2 weeks before start of the intervention), T2 (2 weeks after last session of the intervention)

• Compassion

  Compassionate attitudes and behaviours will be measured using the German version of the Compassionate Engagement and Action Scales (CEAS) to assess staff capacity for self- and other-directed compassion. The CEAS is a self-report questionnaire.

  T0 (6 months before start of the intervention), T1 (2 weeks before start of the intervention), T2 (2 weeks after last session of the intervention)

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Client-Perceived Social Climate

  T0 (6 months before start of the intervention), T1 (2 weeks before start of the intervention), T2 (2 weeks after last session of the intervention)

• Critical Incidents

  T0 (6 months before start of the intervention), T1 (2 weeks before start of the intervention), T2 (2 weeks after last session of the intervention)

Study Arms (3)

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Full CFSS Group (Workshop + Monthly Groups)

Behavioral: Compassion Focused Staff Support

Partial

OTHER

Workshop-Only Group

Behavioral: CFT Workshop

Control

NO INTERVENTION

No intervention

Interventions

Compassion Focused Staff Support BEHAVIORAL

The Compassion Focused Staff Support (CFSS) intervention is designed to promote emotional resilience, compassion, and affect regulation. The intervention begins with a half-day introductory workshop covering the evolution-informed model of emotion regulation, the three-affect system framework, social mentalities, and the nature of compassion. This workshop provides psychoeducation and experiential exercises to introduce key concepts. Following the workshop, staff participate in six monthly 60-minute team sessions over a six-month period. These sessions involve reflective dialogue, experiential exercises, compassion-focused practices, and group-based exploration of emotionally challenging work situations.

Intervention

CFT Workshop BEHAVIORAL

Participants attend a single half-day workshop providing psychoeducation and experiential exercises on compassion, affect regulation, and social mentalities based on Compassion Focused Therapy.

Partial

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Staff Participants:
• Employed at one of the participating correctional or forensic psychiatric units
• Aged 18 years or older
• Willing to provide informed consent
• Client Participants:
• Residing in one of the participating correctional or forensic psychiatric units at the time of data collection.
• Aged 18 years or older.
• Capable of providing informed consent

You may not qualify if:

• Staff Participants:
• \- None (all eligible staff are invited to participate)
• Client Participants:
• Not capable of providing informed consent (e.g., due to acute psychiatric crisis or cognitive impairment).
• Not deemed competent to participate by treatment team.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Psychiatric Clinics Basel: lead

Study Sites (1)

University Psychiatric Clinics Basel

Basel, 4002, Switzerland

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: NETWORK
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: MSc

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 6, 2025
• First Posted: August 22, 2025
• Study Start: May 31, 2024
• Primary Completion: August 4, 2025
• Study Completion: September 5, 2025
• Last Updated: August 22, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CH (1)