BEAMS-ID
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Behavioural Interventions to Treat Anxiety in Adults with Autism and Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disabilities (BEAMS-ID)
IRAS ID
292402
Contact name
Peter Langdon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Background: Our study is about autistic adults who have moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, and problems with anxiety. There are good therapies for anxiety, but these have not been tried with autistic adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. In order to meet the needs of autistic adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, these therapies need to change.
Aims: (a) we will work with autistic adults, carers and family members, and professionals to adapt an existing therapy for anxiety disorders that was developed for autistic adults without intellectual disabilities, and (b) complete a study to try out our therapy and seek feedback from participants and their families. We will also collect information about what sort of therapy people are currently getting, along with testing out some good ways to measure anxiety.
Method: Our study has two parts. In the first part, we will change our existing therapy together with autistic adults with intellectual disabilities, parents, carers and clinicians. This work will be led by an autistic person and members of the research team. We will use something called action research methods and consensus development meetings to change our treatment and figure out the best way to measure anxiety. This means that we will repeatedly spend time with autistic adults with intellectual disabilities, parents, carers and clinicians, working together to make changes to therapy. At the same time, we will do a national survey to find out what treatments or therapies people are getting now. In our second phase, we will try out our therapy with 30 autistic adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. We will also try to interview participants, carers and clinicians about their experiences of doing our study. This will help us work out whether people like the therapy, can use our measures of anxiety, and whether there is anything that we need to change to help people better.
Patient and Public Involvement: We want autistic adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, carers and family members involved in our study. We are working with the National Autistic Society who will help with this study. They will help prepare our paperwork, find people to be in our study, and tell people about what we find out. We have autistic adults who will be in charge of our study with us and will help us change our therapy.
Dissemination: We will write peer review articles which are published in a journal, which is like a magazine. These are often read by professionals. To make sure many people find out about our study, the National Autistic Society help us tell people about it using their Network Autism and their Your Autism magazine. We will also make a podcast. The National Autistic Society will also tell people about our study using social media and their website, and we will put it on our website. We will have a seminar (like a lecture) with The National Autistic Society and autistic adults will help us. We will also do a talk about our study at the National Autistic Society Professional Conference, and other conferences. If you want to know about our study, just ask us, and we will tell you.REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
21/WA/0013
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion