119 Patients’ and volunteers’ experiences with a social network intervention 4 them. For example, dyads discussed what goals patients wanted to achieve and what activities they wanted to engage in together. Alternatively, many coaches demonstrated exploring the needs and desires of patients and adhering to these needs and desires. Most coaches had no initial expectations about the outcomes of FNC, as they wanted to be open to the needs and desires of the individual patient. Additionally, some coaches revealed having no expectations as this was a completely new experience for them. The same was true for many patients who also indicated having no expectations before starting with FNC. Other patients indicated keeping their expectations low to avoid disappointments. Some patients expressed negative expectations, for example the belief that contact with a coach would be awkward and that a coach would interfere with their lives. However, most patients had low expectations and agreed to meet with a coach, without communicating specific needs or goals. The intervention seemed easily accessible and non-binding to them, as some patients indicated that they could try the intervention and stop at any time. "…I just thought let’s try it, we'll see. I can always drop out, he [referring to the coach] can drop out too." – patient 025. DISCUSSION This is the first qualitative study examining the experiences of both patients and coaches with an informal social network intervention, based on befriending programs, alongside an RCT in forensic psychiatric care. During the intervention, outpatients from a forensic mental healthcare institute were matched to a trained volunteer coach from an informal care institute in addition to treatment as usual. The use of qualitative methods provided an in-depth understanding of the experiences from two perspectives, resulting in the conceptualization of five overarching themes that can guide further development and implementation of informal social network interventions in forensic psychiatric care. The main findings from patients’ and coaches’ experiences show that engaging forensic outpatients to the informal social network intervention was challenging but possible and could provide an opportunity for patients to experience new positive social interactions in the community. More specifically, following the five themes, the experiences suggest that (1) several aspects related to patient receptivity, at the start and throughout the intervention, were considered barriers to engagement of patients, (2) new social bonds
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