Interpersonal Counseling Evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Single Blind Mixed Methods Analysis of Interpersonal Counseling Pilot
IRAS ID
176998
Contact name
Paul O Wilkinson
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
A lot of support provided for young people with emotional difficulties is given by professionals with little training, who work in in locality teams. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) has been recommended as a treatment for adolescent depression by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. However, only specialist mental health professionals can give IPT. We therefore need a less specialised therapy that we can train less-specialised professionals in.
Interpersonal counselling (IPC) is an adaptation of IPT with three differences: it can be delivered by staff without mental health training; it is for clients with milder depression; it is shorter than IPT. It is therefore likely to be appropriate for non-specialist youth workers. A recent study showed IPC is more effective than antidepressants for adults with mild depression. We would like to test if it works in young people.
We have adapted IPC to make it suitable for young people. We have trained six family support workers from Suffolk locality teams. They will have regular supervision to discuss cases. Young people aged 12-17 who have problems with low mood, who want to try talking therapy, and who are not too ill to be treated by locality teams will be able to take part in the study.
If young people choose to be in the study, they will fill in questionnaires at every session. This is a normal part of IPC. We shall also ask a parent/carer to fill in questionnaires at the first and final session.
We shall interview young people and also IPC therapists about their experiences of IPC. This will give us a lot more detail about what works well, what does not work well, and ask for suggestions on how to improve IPC for young people. We shall use this to improve future training and delivery of IPC.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
15/IEC08/0025
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion