Experiences of BAME women in IAPT V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating and improving mental health outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in Improving Access to Psychological (IAPT) Services: a qualitative study into experiences of treatment in a London-based IAPT service.
IRAS ID
288406
Contact name
Stephen Pilling
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2020/10/05 , UCL Data Protection Office Registration
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 30 days
Research summary
The research will form part of a PhD thesis in Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at UCL.
IAPT treatment should be made suitable to meet the psychological, practical and cultural needs of BAME women to encourage uptake and adherence and to achieve the best possible outcomes. Drawing on the experiences of patients and their involvement in service changes and adaptations can lead to more suitable treatment. Exploring therapists’ views, experiences, challenges and ideas could help to inform changes which could be piloted and/or implemented to assess the benefits on service users and providers.
Research aims: 1) To explore BAME women’s experiences of IAPT services in a North London NHS Trust; 2) To explore therapists’ experiences of treating BAME women in the Camden & Islington NHS Foundation trust – iCope service.
Design: A qualitative study with 2 parts: 1) semi-structured individual interviews of female, BAME IAPT service users and 2) two focus groups of IAPT therapists working in the iCope IAPT service. We will conduct interviews with up to 16 female service users throughout 2021. We will conduct 2 focus groups with a minimum of 10 therapist participants in total: x5 High Intensity (HI) therapists and x5 Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs). Thematic analysis will be used in both parts of the study, to identify key emergent themes and interpret their meaning.
Benefits to individuals include that both the IAPT service users and therapists involved in this study will have their experiences and ideas heard and incorporated into the development of improvement and change ideas. Some of these changes might be implementable in future, with a view to improving treatment experiences and outcomes for patients on a wider public scale. Finally, continual improvements to mental health treatment which increase the likelihood of good outcomes can influence wider society.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SW/0094
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion