JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

When healthcare professionals provide care, they emphasize a holistic approach; however, sexuality is an integral part of holistic care but is largely ignored in mental health settings. In practice, most mental health professionals do not address sexuality and do not know what services are available. We developed a training program to enable mental health professionals to provide support for the sexuality of people with mental illness living in the community.

Objective:

This study aims to evaluate its effectiveness using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design.

Methods:

The study design is an RCT with a two-arm parallel group comparison. After a baseline assessment, participants will be randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Study participants in the intervention group will answer an online questionnaire at three points in time: baseline (T1), immediately after the program (T2), and one month after the program (T3). Participants in the control group will receive no program and will also undergo three assessments (T1 to T3). The study participants are qualified professionals aged 18 and older who provide support to people with mental illness in the community. The required sample size is 76. This four-hour program combines comprehensive sexuality education with content specific to mental illness and deepens participants’ knowledge and skills through textbooks and case studies. The program will be conducted in small groups of up to eight people, with two facilitators: a professional and a peer with mental illness. The primary outcome is the quality of sexuality education. The secondary outcomes are attitudes toward sexuality, knowledge of sexuality education, and knowledge of preconception care for people with mental illness.

Results:

This study is ongoing.

Conclusions:

The program can help mental health professionals provide more effective support to people with mental illness, which can help improve the well-being of people with mental illness in the long term. Regarding concerns about the study process: recruiting study participants may not be easy, and some participants may have negative reactions to peer facilitators with mental illness. Clinical Trial: This trial has been registered with the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000058204; 2025/06/18).