SPECTROM PDP
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Short-term Psycho-Education for Carers To help Reduce the Over Medication of people with intellectual disabilities (ID): Programme Development Project (SPECTROM PDP)
IRAS ID
334044
Contact name
Shoumitro (Shoumi) Deb
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
People with learning disabilities (LD) and autism are more likely to be given psychiatric medicines than others, often for behaviours that challenge (BtC). Many also take these medicines for a long time without proper review. These medicines can cause serious side effects. These medicines are licensed for psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia and depression, not for BtC without a psychiatric illness. There are many reasons for BtC that need a thorough assessment before a treatment is given.
Support staff play a pivotal role in this process. Therefore, training staff properly is crucial to achieving the best outcome for BtC. We worked with people with LD, support staff, family carers, and doctors to develop SPECTROM training for staff. SPECTROM aims to empower, inform, and equip staff with skills to understand BtC and the person behind BtC and manage their own psychological responses to BtC. The training should increase the staff's knowledge on the assessment of and the treatments for BtC in people with LD. Staff are warned not to reduce medicine or provide any treatment themselves.Sixty staff in the UK and Australia found the training useful, which empowered them and helped them to self-reflect. We plan to discuss with organisations how SPECTROM training can be rolled out. We plan to randomly select eight or more community homes, where staff from half of the homes will be trained in SPECTROM and the other half not. Both will receive their usual training. We will also collect information on psychiatric prescriptions anonymously from these homes. We want to see whether the training would empower staff, make them more knowledgeable about the pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for BtC, and improve their interactions with professionals, family members and the person they support. The study findings will be disseminated through workshops and published papers in scientific journals.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/WM/0211
Date of REC Opinion
10 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion