King’s Health Partners and Impact on Urban Health are funding a team of researchers from King’s College London to develop an intervention to support the psychosocial needs of people with long-term physical health conditions. This work is needed because there is currently no targeted psychological treatment available that intervenes early to support these people with their mental health, who may be at high risk of developing major depressive disorder.

CommonGround is an online peer support platform developed by the Department of Psychological Medicine at King’s College London in collaboration with people with long-term conditions and specialist software developers BitJam (and previously TOAD). The journey of bringing CommonGround into reality as an intervention to support the mental wellbeing of people with long-term conditions is ongoing.

The initial stages of research explored whether patients would want an online peer support platform with evidence-based self-help information to help them learn how to better self-manage their physical and mental health. In 2023 the paper ‘A qualitative exploration of the psychosocial needs of people living with long-term conditions and their perspectives on online peer support’ was published. Based on what patients said, the researchers began a process of co-production to create CommonGround, an intervention with the needs of patients at the centre.

The next steps for CommonGround

For the next steps of this study, there will be a three-month randomised controlled trial of CommonGround. Participants will be asked to feedback on what they think about the platform and their thoughts on participating in the trial. We will also assess how feasible it may be to run a larger trial of the platform. These next stages will help the research team to understand the future of CommonGround, to ultimately assess how effective CommonGround is at helping patients manage their mental health.

The CommonGround team has a new website for anyone who would like to learn more about our research: whether you are a person with a long-term condition who is interested in participating in the trial or joining our Patient Public Involvement panel, a researcher, or a clinician.

Get involved in CommonGround

If you are someone living with a long-term condition who is interested in participating in our trial to understand what people think about our new peer support platform, please click here to read more. If you have any questions, please email the research team at commonground@kcl.ac.uk.

Recent blogs

Blogs from the team are published on the QUAHRC site. 

Exploring the unmet psychosocial needs of people living with long-term conditions. This blog discusses the key findings of a recently published study we did to understand the unmet psychosocial needs of people living with long-term conditions and their thoughts of online peer support.

Contact us

If you would like to learn more about CommonGround research - whether you are a person with a long-term condition interested in participating in the trial or joining our Patient Public Involvement panel, a researcher or a clinician - you can get in contact with the King’s College London research team at commonground@kcl.ac.uk.

The research behind CommonGround and the development of the platform itself has been driven by a team of researchers from King’s College London and their Patient Public Involvement group, in collaboration with software developers (BitJam). The voices of the Patient Public Involvement group have been essential in creating the features and functions of the online peer support platform. If you would like to hear more or get involved in our Patient Public Involvement group, please email commonground@kcl.ac.uk.

Some of the research team were asked about their experiences of working on CommonGround:

Grace, a research fellow at King's College London, said:

“Working on this special co-production has been a real privilege. We hope to have created a safe space for people with long-term conditions to learn, share and grow. Most importantly, we hope that our platform will encourage members to offer support to one another. The CommonGround platform has been uniquely co-designed and steered by our wonderful team of people with lived experiences. This has been a really exciting journey to navigate. I look forward to embracing the future directions of the platform and experiencing how CommonGround will grow and evolve, based on the lessons we have yet to learn.”

Han, one of our research assistants, said:

"It has been a privilege to contribute to the development of CommonGround and create a truly unique space for people living with long-term conditions. The platform has already grown so much from brainstorming ideas, and I cannot wait to see how it grows further."

Vanessa, our qualitative methodologist, said:

"I am excited by the collaborative way in which the CommonGround platform was created. Involving people with long-term physical health conditions in this process has helped to create a space that feels relevant, useful, and supportive. I can't wait to see how people how people interact with it!"

The research team has a wide range of expertise that they draw on when making CommonGround a reality:

Alan

Alan is Professor of Mental Health Nursing at King's College London. Alan has a research interest in improving care for people with mental and physical health problems.

Matthew

Matthew is a psychiatrist, mental health researcher, Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London and Professor of General Hospital Psychiatry. His main interest is in the way in which mental and physical health interact. His research interests have been informed by many years of clinical practice seeing people with many different physical illnesses who experience emotional distress and mental disorders like depression.

Ewan, our statistician said:

“I’m a researcher and statistician specialising in techniques to make sense of complex, longitudinal datasets. I’m excited about developing and evaluating digital interventions for mental health.”

Elly

Elly has several health conditions; some she has lived with since birth others she has developed along the way. Her background is in writing, digital user research and healthcare advocacy. She is passionate about improving working life for people with chronic illness and has been a co-investigator with lived experience on the project since the beginning.