MBT with Older Adults
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mentalisation-Based Therapy with Older Adults: A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design Series
IRAS ID
349077
Contact name
Georgia Powell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 18 days
Research summary
Mentalisation is defined as the ability to make sense of our own and other people’s thoughts, feelings, actions and beliefs. Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT) is a talking therapy developed to help people with longstanding difficulties across many of their relationships. MBT’s efficacy has been researched in adolescent and adult populations but not with older adults (those 60 and above), who are at a different stage of life with changing personal and social needs and contexts that may impact relationships and the therapy process in unique ways.
This study aims to explore MBT’s efficacy with older adults, and the processes underpinning this, as well as potential adaptations. Findings will ensure that MBT meets the needs of older adults, developing the theoretical understanding of mentalisation in later life, and thereby contributing to clinical practice.
A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) series will be used and 4-6 participants recruited from people invited to participate in Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s Later Life MBT intervention. The study will involve treatment as usual for participants, with additional weekly questionnaires, and questionnaires and interviews at baseline, after the MBT introduction group, and 6 months into the MBT process group. Participants’ involvement in the study will be approximately 9 months. Additionally, participants will invite a friend/relative to undertake separate interviews about participants’ experiences, as well as clinicians who facilitate the MBT intervention. Clinicians will also complete weekly questionnaires.
The researcher will then create affirmative and skeptic cases regarding MBT’s efficacy for each participant, which will be put to an adjudicational panel comprising an expert in MBT, an expert in another therapeutic modality, and one service-user expert. The panel will individually judge which case was more likely for each participant, and the researcher will synthesise their findings and draw conclusions about MBT’s overall efficacy.
The study is funded by Health Education England.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/LO/0060
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion