Evaluation of an ACT and PBS Group for Parents and Education Staff v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Evaluation of an ACT and PBS Group Workshop for Parents and Education Staff of Children and Young People with an Intellectual Disability
IRAS ID
251260
Contact name
Paul Morris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 19 days
Research summary
Parents and education staff who work with children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are known to be at a higher risk of experiencing psychological distress. This study evaluates whether a therapeutic group for parents and education staff who work with children with ID is effective in reducing psychological distress and if so, how it does this and who it works for. The group will include two components: an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) section and a section about positive behaviour support (PBS). ACT is a psychological therapy, the aim of which is to help people to live their lives based on what matters to them, whilst learning new ways of managing difficult thoughts and feelings. The PBS section aims to help participants to learn how to use positive strategies to reduce challenging behaviour. Both interventions have been shown to be effective on their own, but we are interested in seeing if combining the two is helpful. Parents of children with ID and education staff who work closely with children with ID attending chosen schools or learning disability child and adolescent mental health services in NHS Lothian will be invited to participate in the study. The group will take place on three half days. Participants will complete questionnaires on the first and last day of the group and six weeks after it has finished. The questionnaires will be about psychological distress, confidence in caring for children with ID and seeing if the group changed how they cope with thoughts and feelings. Participants will also be invited to a focus group, which will think about if the intervention was helpful, and if so how it helped. If the group is effective, we would hope to research the intervention in more depth with the aim of it being offered more widely in the future.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
18/SS/0159
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion