Implementation and Effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy in a Community Mental Health Service
Date
2016
Authors
Reay, Rebecca
Stuart, Scott
Owen, Cathy
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Abstract
Objective: Although the efficacy of a number of psychotherapeutic interventions
has been well established in tightly controlled, randomized trials,
there remains a paucity of literature examining the effectiveness of these
interventions in community practice settings. In light of this, the Australian
Capital Territory Mental Health Services (Canberra, ACT) set out to investigate
the effectiveness of an empirically supported psychotherapeutic intervention,
interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). The present study describes a
pilot evaluation of the training programme for health professionals and the
IPT treatment programme.
Methods: Forty community mental health professionals participated in
intensive IPT training. Clinicians who completed a course of supervision
were asked to apply the treatment with non-psychotic acutely depressed
patients. Measures of patients’ health outcomes were taken before and after
treatment using a standardized outcome measure.
Results: A total of 17 out of 21 patients who were selected completed a
course of 12–16 weeks of IPT. The majority of the patients had a depression
originating in the post-partum period. A comparison of pre- and posttreatment
scores of treatment completers revealed a significant decrease in mean
depression scores. Clinicians who completed a course of training and supervision
found that they were able to confidently apply IPT in a clinical setting.
Conclusions: Although there were a number of barriers and obstacles to
the introduction of an evidenced-based treatment, the results are promising
and demonstrate that IPT can be readily taught to experienced mental health
professionals. Further study is required to determine the feasibility of IPT
in other non-academic settings using larger sample sizes and homogenous
groups of patients.
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Keywords
community mental health services, health outcomes measure, interpersonal psychotherapy, postnatal depression.
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Australasian Psychiatry
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Journal article
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Open Access
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