Psychological outcomes for Older People
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How do Older Adults experience change in psychological therapy within local secondary care mental health services?
IRAS ID
297238
Contact name
Laura Parkin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 26 days
Research summary
This study is exploring older adult mental health services by considering what older people (65+) gain from engaging in psychological therapy. There is a lot of research emphasising the differences between working age and older adults (such as beliefs, attitudes, stages of life, values, physical health considerations etc.), yet many tool and resources used in older adult mental health services have been taken from adult mental health services without consideration of the unique needs of older people.
This study specifically considers the use of Outcome measures used in older adult services. Outcome measures are measures used to evaluate services, monitor progress in therapy and to highlight treatment needs. In older adult services, these are largely outdated (some common measures being developed in 1998) and predominantly have been developed for use with working-age adults. It is unclear whether what people get out of therapy is the same for older people, who have many different needs.
The aim of this project is to understand what older people (65+) gain from engaging in psychological therapy in Older People’s Mental Health (OPMH) services by interviewing older people who have engaged in psychological therapy and have been discharged from the service due to being considered by the psychologist to have made sufficient progress to no longer warrant psychological intervention at a secondary care level.
Participants will be selected by their allocated psychologist as having made significant progress in therapy, so that we can explore when therapy is successful, what it is that means an outcome is positive. The participant will then be interviewed for up to 90 minutes about their experience of therapy. 5-10 participants will be selected, as recommended for our specific qualitative methodology (interpretative phenomenological methodology). This methodology is used to gain an in-depth perspective of people's experiences.
Lay summary of study results: There is increased risk of side effects and complications to antipsychotic medication as people get older. Given, that there is an increasing ageing population, there is a need to improve and increase psychological treatment for older people. It is currently unclear how and whether therapy should be adapted for this population. This is complicated by outcome frameworks being outdated and underutilised in determining therapy effectiveness for this age group. Older people’s voices are imperative in understanding therapy experiences, understanding the mechanisms of positive change and making necessary improvements.
Six older people (65+), who had received psychological therapy and made positive progress, within a secondary care community mental team (for complex and enduring mental health difficulties) completed interviews about their experience of therapy.A qualitative methodology of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse results. Methodological quality was highlighted throughout using established frameworks.
The analysis produced three group experiential themes (processing my identity, the powerful therapy relationship, continuing my journey), each containing two sub-themes.
Important insights into how older participants experienced psychological therapy were highlighted. There was high convergence between participants, which gave suggestions on how therapy can be sensitive to the unique needs of older people and what may be the determinants of positive progress.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/WM/0126
Date of REC Opinion
9 Jun 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion