FACTS

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Families and Carers Treatment and Support Programme (FACTS)

• IRAS ID

  131609

• Contact name

  Anthony Bateman

• Contact email

  abateman@nhs.net

• Sponsor organisation

  Noclor

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 8 months, 2 days

• Research summary

  Families have a unique position of being able to support mental health treatment, but they can only do so if they are aware of what to do and how to manage common situations that present as a result of the illness. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a particularly difficult condition for families to manage as the difficulties often present as a problem in the family relationships. As a result families of patients with BPD struggle to cope with their own feelings, leaving them traumatized, disempowered and unsure how best to help their relative or loved one. Yet, support and advice for families is rarely available and, when it is, is often misleading, sometimes offensive, confusing, and generally unhelpful.
  The Anna Freud Centre (AFC) proposes to evaluate a support programme for families, friends, partners and others (hereon called families) who are involved with people with BPD with the aim of reducing adverse incidents in the family whilst improving family well-being. It is suggested that these effects may lead to less use of crisis and other services by the person with BPD.

  Through a feasibility study using a randomized controlled design we aim to establish the viability of a full-scale RCT. We will test:
  a) ability to recruit families to the programme
  b) acceptability of randomisation to families
  c) implementation of intervention by families to families
  d) Acceptability to families of monitoring incidents on a weekly basis over the study period and 3 month and 6 month follow up.
  and
  e) gather indicative data to establish the effectiveness of the intervention on primary and secondary outcomes.

• REC name

  London - City & East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/1519

• Date of REC Opinion

  7 Oct 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion