Impact and Experiences of Using Decisions Aids in Outpatient Mental Health.

June 9, 2026 updated by: University of Southern Denmark

DAN-SHARE. Impact and Experiences of Using Decisions Aids in Hospital Outpatient Mental Health Settings. A Mixed Methods Study on Shared Decision-making Practice in the Danish Mental Healthcare

DAN-SHARE is a study on shared decision-making (SDM) in Danish mental healthcare that investigates the impact of a decision aid, the Decision Helper™, on patient involvement in treatment decision-making in hospital outpatient mental health settings. The study also explores patients' and healthcare professionals' understanding and experiences of using the Decision Helper™ as part of decision-making practice in mental healthcare.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Shared decision-making (SDM) is a collaborative model for treatment decision-making and is widely regarded as a cornerstone of patient-centered care. In SDM, patients and healthcare professionals jointly review available treatment options and identify the solution that best aligns with the patient's preferences and values. Decision aids that are designed to support SDM by presenting treatment options and helping patients formulate and communicate their preferences, are often a central component of SDM. However, little is known about how healthcare professionals and patients understand and experience the use of decision aids in their clinical encounters. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge on the use of decision aids within mental healthcare.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of the Decision Helper™, when used in mental healthcare. The Decision Helper™ is developed as part of the broad implementation of SDM across all hospitals in the Region of Southern Denmark, but is not yet investigated within mental healthcare.

In the study, patients are randomized to either an intervention group or an active control group. In the intervention group, treatment consultations are conducted using the Decision Helper™, whereas in the control group, consultations follow SDM practices without the use of the decision aid. Additionally, the study seeks to explore patients' and mental healthcare professionals' understanding of, and experiences with, using the Decision Helper™ as part of the SDM practice.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

62

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age ≥ 18 years
  • In treatment for a mental health disorder in one of the participating settings of the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to understand Danish language
  • Unable to provide verbal and written informed consent
  • Diagnosed with cognitive impairment or dementia

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: SDM practice by using Decision Helper
Other: Shared decision making
Patients assigned to the intervention group will be exposed to the Decision Helper™ during consultations in which treatment decisions or related issues are addressed. The Decision Helper™ used in these consultations follows a five-step process based on the core principles of shared decision-making: (1) framing the situation and explaining the purpose of the consultation; (2) clarifying the patient's preferred level of information; (3) exploring what matters most to the patient in the decision-making process; (4) presenting the available treatment options, including their advantages and disadvantages; and (5) asking whether the patient is ready to make a decision regarding their preferred treatment option.
Other: Shared decision making
Patients assigned to the control group will not be exposed to the Decision Helper™ during treatment consultations in which decisions are made. However, because all healthcare professionals in the participating settings have received training in shared decision-making, the control group constitutes an active control condition, as patients will still be exposed to the general principles of SDM during decision-making consultations.
Active Comparator: SDM without Decision Helper
Other: Shared decision making
Patients assigned to the intervention group will be exposed to the Decision Helper™ during consultations in which treatment decisions or related issues are addressed. The Decision Helper™ used in these consultations follows a five-step process based on the core principles of shared decision-making: (1) framing the situation and explaining the purpose of the consultation; (2) clarifying the patient's preferred level of information; (3) exploring what matters most to the patient in the decision-making process; (4) presenting the available treatment options, including their advantages and disadvantages; and (5) asking whether the patient is ready to make a decision regarding their preferred treatment option.
Other: Shared decision making
Patients assigned to the control group will not be exposed to the Decision Helper™ during treatment consultations in which decisions are made. However, because all healthcare professionals in the participating settings have received training in shared decision-making, the control group constitutes an active control condition, as patients will still be exposed to the general principles of SDM during decision-making consultations.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient involvement in decision-making
Time Frame: Throughout study completion, an average of 3 months.

Observed level of patient involvement in decision making according to the OPTION 12 scale.

OPTION 12 measures the level of patient involvement in decision-making by assessing recordings of treatment consultations on a 5-point Likert scale (0 to 4). Raw score rangs from 0 to 48 and is converted to a score ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate a higher level of patient involvement.
Throughout study completion, an average of 3 months.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient-perceived level of involvement in decision-making
Time Frame: Patient-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.
Patient-reported perceived involvement in decision-making, measured using the 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9). The SDM-Q-9 assesses the extent to which patients perceive themselves as being involved in decision-making. Patients rate their level of agreement with each of the 9 statements on a 6-point Likert scale. Raw scores range from 0 to 45 and are converted to a standardized score ranging from 0 to 100.
Patient-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.
Clinician-perceived level of involving the patient
Time Frame: Clinician-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.
Clinician-reported perceived level of patient involvement in decision-making, measured using the clinician version of the 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-Doc). The SDM-Q-Doc assesses the extent to which clinicians perceive that they involve patients in the decision-making process. Clinicians evaluate each of the 9 items on a 6-point Likert scale. Raw scores range from 0 to 45 and are converted to scores ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate greater clinician-perceived involvement of patients in decision-making.
Clinician-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.
Personal recovery
Time Frame: Patient-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.

Patient-reported measure of personal recovery, assessed using the Brief INSPIRE-O. The Brief INSPIRE-O is a 5-item self-rated measure of recovery, i.e., a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), that assesses personal recovery from the patient's perspective.

Each of the five statements is rated by the patient on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 to 4. Item scores are summed and multiplied by 5 to generate a total score ranging from 0 to 100. Higher scores indicate higher levels of patient-perceived personal recovery.
Patient-assessed within two weeks after the treatment consultation.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Southern Denmark

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 9, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 10, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 10, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 9, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DAN-SHARE

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Shared Decision Making

Clinical Trials on Shared decision making

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Jordan

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe