We have been awarded a research grant starting in January 2025 to December 2025 to gather evidence in support of implanting Soteria services in the UK! This is a major milestone on our journey to integrating our values and principles into UK mental health services.

The research application was coproduced by out research partners at The Complex Research and Resilience Unit in Manchester (C-TRU)  Complex Trauma and Resilience Research Unit | The University of Manchester

Below is the Plain English Summary that briefly outlines what the research will do.

We’ll keep you updated via this website and our mailing list.

Plain English Summary:

Psychosis and mania are considered severe mental health experiences which include hearing voices, and believing things others struggle to manage and understand. Treatments typically rely on sedative medications which service users often struggle to cope with. At times, people are admitted to hospital when there are concerns about their safety, or these experiences are very distressing. Evidence shows that admissions to hospital can be hostile and traumatising. Service users, carers, and health and social care professionals want to see change: care that is service user-led, and within supportive, safe environments that encourage choice and hope. The Soteria Approach: Several services around the world use the ‘Soteria’ approach. ‘Soteria houses’ support people in distress, in ‘home’- like settings of acceptance, dignity, and medication choice, run mainly by people with lived experiences where genuine community relationships become the healing and care. There has never been one formally setup in the UK. This research partnership was begun by the Soteria Network UK (SNUK). SNUK is a community of service users, families, community groups and health and social care professionals with experience of psychiatric inpatient care. The network would like to see the Soteria approach used in the UK. What we will do: This research is a process of shared design, encouraging learning from people both outside and within research communities. The project is co-led by a SNUK trustee with lived experience of psychiatric hospital admission. We are also building a ‘community research team’ (CRT) that includes SNUK trustees, service users, and voluntary sector organisations. People from under-represented communities have significantly higher forced hospital admissions (e.g. people from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups; LGBT communities), so will be actively supported to join the CRT. We will train and support the CRT to be involved in all research stages. How: The research wants to answer how Soteria could be offered in the UK as an alternative to hospital care.

There are 5 stages, each involving the CRT:

1. We will review and summarise existing research into how Soteria has been used worldwide.
2. We will run four focus groups with people with lived experience of psychiatric hospital admission, family members, and representatives from mental health charities and voluntary organisations. We will interview NHS and non-NHS professionals, and staff from Soteria houses worldwide about the benefits and potential challenges of Soteria, and how to resolve challenges.
3. We will estimate the cost of setting up a Soteria service in the UK, compared with hospital treatment.
4. We will take all of this information and present the findings in ways that are clear and easy to understand.
5. We will design a future research project to set up, run and evaluate Soteria houses in the UK.

We look forward to working with our community on this ground breaking piece of work.