EQUITy Cluster Randomised Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Enhancing the quality of psychological interventions delivered by telephone (EQUITy): A cluster randomised trial of a service quality improvement intervention
IRAS ID
298615
Contact name
Penny Bee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN22583714
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Depression and anxiety cause great difficulties for people who experience them. The NHS has created a world-leading service called ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT)’, to help people with these conditions.
To help people access the IAPT service, many thousands of treatment sessions are delivered by telephone. Treatments delivered over the telephone are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for depression and anxiety because they are helpful.
We want to improve the way that psychological treatments in IAPT are delivered over the telephone. We have studied data to understand which groups of people have the most difficulty receiving treatment over the telephone, and have worked with patients and professionals to understand their experiences and the types of challenges they face in telephone treatment.
We have used what we have learned through this work to develop an intervention which is made up of a training course for professionals to help them deliver treatments better over the telephone, and educational materials for patients which contain useful information about receiving this treatment. We have also created best-practice guidelines and workshops for IAPT teams to improve the overall delivery of treatment over the telephone.
We will compare services that receive our intervention to those that do not. We will test whether using our intervention means that more patients finish their treatment, and whether this has benefits for their health. We will talk to patients and professionals about their experiences of telephone treatments following our intervention.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0218
Date of REC Opinion
25 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion