Therapist and Client Perspectives on the Psychology of Long-Covid
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Holding the Hope? Therapist and Client Perspectives on the Psychological Aspects of Long-Covid. A Q-Methodology
IRAS ID
313943
Contact name
William Burton-Fisher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire Unviversity
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 4 days
Research summary
The study will seek to understand the opinions of Long-Covid sufferers and therapists working in the field. With little guidance on therapeutic intervention, seeking feedback from therapists and Long-Covid sufferers offers an opportunity to understand what has helped so far. Additionally, with historic rifts between medical professionals and chronically-fatigued people, understanding different groups’ perspectives allows us to explore the social elements which may more broadly underpin therapeutic outcome. For this reason, a Q-methodology has been selected as the most appropriate form of study. This is because Q is concerned with the systematic study of subjectivity in a manner which offers structure and form, alongside comparison between and within subjects (Brown, 1986).
A number of statements (the ‘Q-sort’) will initially be developed following a full literature review, with the aim of covering a broad array of potential perspectives on the topic. These will then be taken to focus groups of experts by experience (one with therapists, one with clients) for their corroboration. Focus groups will be run online to reduce the burden on therapist workload, alongside any potential physical health impacts on clients. Focus groups are not anticipated to last any more than one hour.
Following this, participants will be invited to complete an online Q-sort of the coproduced statements. It is anticipated that the Q-Sort task will take no longer than one hour, however timeframe will be somewhat informed by the number of statements generated at the literature review and focus group stages. To ensure the task is appropriate in duration, the Q-Sort will be trialled with staff members working within IAPT. Feedback from this will inform any necessary adaptations to the activity (e.g. reducing through synthesis the number of statements). Participants will be made aware that they can step away from their computer for breaks whilst completing the sort.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/EM/0145
Date of REC Opinion
9 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion