Behavioural Family Therapy for adults with intellectual disabilities
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Behavioural Family Therapy to support adults with intellectual disabilities: primary caregivers’ perspectives
IRAS ID
234867
Contact name
Lindsey Eunson
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
137078, Affiliated IRAS project ID
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 17 days
Research summary
Research suggests that families who support people with mental health problems are more likely to experience stress. Stress can lead to poorer outcomes, including mental health deterioration. Behavioural family therapy (BFT) is a form of psychological treatment that can improve problem solving skills and reduce stress within families.
People with intellectual disabilities are at greater risk of developing mental health problems, leaving family carers at greater risk of experiencing high levels of stress and consequential mental health issues. As a result, there has been increasing interest in how BFT may be applied to families caring for individuals who have an intellectual disability and additional mental health difficulties.
NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian Learning Disabilities Services offer BFT as part of routine clinical treatment. This study will invite primary caregivers for people with intellectual disabilities from these services, who have completed BFT, to take part in a semi-structured interview about their experience. Recruitment will begin with those who have attended most sessions of BFT and completed the intervention most recently.
All candidates will be given information about the study and the opportunity to ask questions before agreeing to take part. Participation is entirely voluntary. Those who consent will take part in an interview in their home or NHS site, lasting approximately one hour. It is hoped that 12 caregivers can be recruited to take part. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to analyse these interviews. IPA can help to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences, and will help to identify themes within caregivers’ responses. Caregivers may later be asked to review the researcher’s interpretations of their response. This helps to make sure the researcher has an accurate understanding of their experiences. The results of the study will be shared with caregivers on completion.REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
17/WS/0258
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion