Relationships in Good Hands Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Relationships in Good Hands Trial: clinical and cost-effectiveness of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy for abused and neglected young children with maltreatment-associated problems and their parents
IRAS ID
274947
Contact name
Helen Jennifer Minnis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Glasgow
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
The adopted or fostered children in the UK that have been abused and neglected are more likely than others to have problems in school, become homeless, get involved in crime and even die young. There is a need to test available treatments for their complex mental health problems since the early treatment could greatly improve their life chances.
There is an available intervention called Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), which is a parent-child therapy focussing on “Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy”. We don’t know yet whether it helps and while many UK therapists like DDP, we need to assess if DDP improves children’s mental health and if the commitment needed is worth it for families and whether the benefits outweigh costs to services.
We would invite all eligible foster families hoping that around 240 families will agree to take part in this research. We will also invite the NHS staff, providers of Social Care and some Private practitioners. We plan to work in number of regions in Scotland and England.
In first 9 months (PHASE1) we will talk to therapists and service managers linked to DDP and looking how DDP works in the different settings like NHS, Social Care and Private Practice. We will look whether children can get any additional assessments or referrals they might need for their medical and psychiatric support. In following 17 months (PHASE 2), we plan to find out if there are families
(we aim to recruit around 60 families) that would be happy to take part in the trial (whether offered DDP or usual services) and make sure everything works well. If all goes to plan, we will invite another 180 families during following 27 months (PHASE 3) when we will test whether DDP is different than usual services and, if it is, whether the improvements in child mental health outweigh the costs.REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
20/WS/0039
Date of REC Opinion
3 Apr 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion