Cognitive & communication skills that people with ID require for CBT.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing cognitive and communication skills required for offenders with Intellectual Disabilities to engage in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy programmes: a pilot study.
IRAS ID
145882
Contact name
Glynis Murphy
Contact email
Research summary
Previous literature has revealed that people with Intellectual Disabilities are at an increased risk of having mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression compared to the general population.
When people in the general population suffer with mental health problems there are many treatments that can be offered to help improve mental health. One successful treatment is Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CST). CST is used in order to change the individual's way of thinking, as it is believed that these thoughts affect behaviour and emotions.
However, in order for individuals to engage in CST they have to have the ability to identify emotions and link emotions to
an event and to their behaviour.Intellectual disabilities is defined as having a significant deficit in intellectual functioning (JQ <70) and in adaptive behaviours. It has sometimes been asserted that people with Intellectual disabilities Jack the cognitive abilities and communication skills that would enable them to participate successfully in CST. Another main characteristic of Intellectual Disabilities is that individuals often lack particular social skills, such as being able to recognise emotions. This would therefore make CST very hard to successfully complete.
The purpose of this study is to track people's progress in therapy and compare the outcome of therapy with performance on suitability assessment (cognitive abilities and communication skills). It is hoped that by assessing individuals cognitive and communication skills prior to the treatment, it may help to establish what could be predictors of how effective the therapy may be. This may be an effective way to help clinicians when deciding which participants are suitable for CST.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0619
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion