Living with Long Term Illness project: Group work in Primary Care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Living with Long Term Illness project: Group work in Primary Care- an investigation into the value of group work in improving outcomes for people with long term or significant illness.
IRAS ID
150702
Contact name
Margaret Jackson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hull York Medical School
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
This study aims to evaluate the role that group work can play in improving outcomes for people with long term and/or significant illness. Patients with long term illnesses often have psychological as well as physical problems which result in many NHS contacts. Looking for novel ways, within primary care, to intervene in the management of multimorbidity in a more holistic way and to reduce health service costs would seem to be desirable. There is a significant overlap between long term conditions and psychological distress. Depression occurs in about 20% of those with a chronic physical health problem.
Group work has been used within community based interventions for many years and there would appear to be some evidence of its effectiveness. The overall aim of this work is to contextualise the Living with Long Term Illness work (developed and conducted in general practices in the Whitby area) within an academic framework.
The research will have two broad objectives or phases. Firstly we will undertake a systematic review of the literature on the clinical effectiveness of group based interventions for people with long term conditions. Secondly we will undertake, by means of semi-structured interviews, a qualitative study to examine the impact of the group work undertaken by Jackson and colleagues on participants who have current or previous experience of Long Term Illness Groups.
Specific questions to be addressed are:
1. What group work methods have been used successfully in addressing physical and psychological outcomes in patients with long term conditions?
2. What tools are appropriate to assess wellbeing in patients with long term conditions?
3. What do participants perceive to be the key components of a successful long term illness group?REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/1364
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion