Assessing a new training initiative for IAPT therapists

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Assessing a new training initiative for high intensity IAPT therapists and its impact on treatment outcomes amongst IAPT attendees with personality difficulties

  • IRAS ID

    303144

  • Contact name

    Paul Moran

  • Contact email

    paul.moran@bristol.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Bristol

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    0362, Faculty Research Ethics Committee, University of Bristol

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 2 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    People in England with depression and anxiety are often treated by therapists working for the government's 'Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies' (IAPT) programme. People who experience significant difficulties in how they relate to themselves and others and who may have problems coping in day to day life, may receive a diagnosis of personality difficulties, which often occur alongside depression and anxiety. Clients with personality difficulties tend to have less favourable outcomes compared to those without on IAPT therapies. Therefore, a new one-day training workshop for IAPT therapists has been developed in order to help improve treatment outcomes for those clients presenting to IAPT with co-occurring personality difficulties. Improving treatment outcomes is one of IAPT's service development priorities, namely improving quality and service experience.

    The study aims to examine the effectiveness of the training initiative, which will be given at Vitaminds, the Bristol IAPT service in two ways, both of which relate to whether it improves outcomes in IAPT clients with personality difficulties. It will look at anonymised data already collected by VitaMinds about adult clients to compare treatment outcomes and scores 6 months before and 6 months after the training programme has been given. IAPT therapists will also be given questionnaires to assess their feedback and learning before/after the training workshop. The therapists will be invited to be interviewed after the training programme has taken place.

  • REC name

    East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    22/EE/0034

  • Date of REC Opinion

    22 Feb 2022

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion