70 Chapter 3 substance use and recidivism (Pettus‐Davis et al., 2017). However, larger sample sizes are recommended to reliably investigate the effectiveness of the intervention. Furthermore, the intervention comprised of a short intervention (i.e., 10-week training), while researchers emphasize that social support interventions for forensic psychiatric patients should be long lasting in order to find significant effects (Bootsma et al., 2017; Pettus‐Davis et al., 2017). An evaluative study of a social support intervention among mentally ill prisoners during and after incarceration found a significant positive association with quality of life, but no significant association with criminal recidivism or psychiatric hospitalization (Jacoby & Kozie‐Peak, 1997). The generalizability of these results is limited due to a small sample size and low treatment adherence rates. Other researchers found some positive results – improved criminal recidivism outcomes – in a group of former prisoners that received social support by community volunteers (Duwe, 2018a). The addition of an informal or volunteer-based social network intervention could be promising, since social networks of forensic patients are often overrepresented by formal or professional health caregivers (Skeem et al., 2009). Improvement of supportive social networks during treatment of forensic psychiatric patients with social network-related problems might reduce criminal recidivism directly or indirectly, for example by enhancing mental wellbeing which may lead to reduced mental health problems and criminal recidivism. More RCTs with a sufficient sample size are needed to examine the effectiveness and working mechanisms of social network interventions in forensic psychiatric populations. Therefore, in the present study, a randomized parallel-group RCT will be conducted to examine the addition of forensic network coaching (FNC) – an informal social network intervention – to (a multimodal) treatment as usual (TAU) among forensic psychiatric outpatients. The aim of FNC is to: (1) improve (the quality of) social networks, (2) social support, and (3) social participation. To provide an accessible social network intervention and stimulate patients’ adherence to the intervention, FNC will be tailored to the individual needs. To promote effectiveness, FNC is available for a prolonged period of maximum 12 months to promote effectiveness. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT that examines the additional effectiveness of an informal social network intervention within forensic clinical practice. Hence, this study will contribute to generalizable knowledge about the effectiveness of (specific) interventions for forensic psychiatric populations. Research aims The first aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the addition of FNC to treatment as usual (TAU) on the mental wellbeing among forensic psychiatric outpatients
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