NCT07135518

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

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 52 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University Psychiatric Clinics Basel · Network
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Compassion Focused Staff Support	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.
BEHAVIORAL	CFT Workshop	Participants attend a single half-day workshop providing psychoeducation and experiential exercises on compassion, affect regulation, and social mentalities based on Compassion Focused Therapy.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-05-31
• Primary completion: 2025-08-04
• Completion: 2025-09-05
• First posted: 2025-08-22
• Last updated: 2025-08-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland