IAPT and Long Term Medical Conditions: what can we offer?

Abigail Wroe, Edward Rennie, Sarah Gibbons, Arek Hassy, Judith Chapman

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Abstract

Background: The proposal of a 4-year plan to integrate treatment of people with long term
medical conditions (LTCs) into the IAPT service (Department of Health, 2011) seeks for
research to understand the effectiveness of IAPT interventions for this patient group. Aim:
The aim of this service development pilot work was to develop an intervention that is effective
for people with Type 2 DiabetesMellitus (T2DM). It was hypothesized that the standard IAPT
intervention would not be effective, but that it can be adapted so that it is effective both in
terms of mood and self-management of T2DM. Method: Clients (n = 95) who experienced
mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety and had a diagnosis of T2DM opted to attend.
The intervention was adapted over a series of cohorts from a standard Step 2 intervention.
A team of Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs), a Clinical Health Psychologist
and a General Practitioner worked in collaboration, using outcomes measures and feedback
from service users and facilitators. Results: The standard IAPT Step 2 intervention met with
challenges when specifically targeting this client group. Using paired t-tests, the modified Step
2 intervention demonstrated significant improvements from pre- to post-intervention measures
both in terms of psychological (n = 17) and physical (n = 9) outcomes. Conclusion: It is
concluded that it may be possible to modify a generic Step 2 IAPT intervention to demonstrate
improvements both in terms of psychological wellbeing and self-management of T2DM. The main adaptations were related to more targeted recruitment and linking of diabetes specifically
into the CBT model.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalBehavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
Volume11
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2014

Keywords

  • IAPT
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2

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