Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Who we are

The Community Navigator Study

We are developing and testing a programme of support to increase community connections and reduce loneliness for people with complex anxiety and depression. This is a collaboration between staff from specialist secondary mental health services in Barnet, Camden and Islington, experts by lived experience and a research team from University College London and the McPin Foundation. 

Community Navigators give people a chance to explore opportunities in their local area and how they might become involved with more people, groups and activities. Participants will be allocated a personal Community Navigator, who will work with them to think about how to become more involved with other people and their community, and who will support them to take steps towards achieving this aim. Participants will be offered 10 meetings with their Community Navigator over a six-month period in order to do this. Our team of Community Navigators are employed by Camden and Islington NHS Foundation trust.

Through this study, we aim to:

1. Develop a social intervention to address the problem of loneliness involving Community Navigators and a personal budget for people with complex depression and anxiety currently using secondary mental health services.

2. Refine this programme through initial testing and feedback with 10 service users.

3. Conduct a feasibility trial of the programme with 40 service users to test the feasibility of participant recruitment and retention and investigate optimal trial procedures.

4. Explore experience of the programme and develop a theory of change model based on user-led interviews with service users receiving the intervention, Community Navigators, clinicians and others involved in the programme.