Narrative Exposure Therapy for Adults With Intellectual Disability

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM · Jun 2, 2020

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

People with ID have a substantially higher prevalence of mental health conditions when compared to the general population and are at greater risk of exposure to adverse life events. In a survey of 177 people with mild to moderate ID, 75% had experienced at least one traumatic event. It is therefore not surprising that, when compared to the general population, people with ID are more vulnerable to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Whilst the research suggests that people with ID have an increased risk of developing PTSD, there is a lack of research into trauma-focuse...

Gender

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Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• Participants must be:
• • 18 or over (no upper age limit due to ID services being lifelong).
• • deemed to meet criteria for a mild intellectual disability, according to the clinical psychologist supporting recruitment.
• • Experiencing traumatic stress, as assessed by their clinical psychologist using the Impact of Events Scale - Intellectual Disabilities. Traumatic stress will be a feature of their presenting problems but they are not required to have a diagnosis of PTSD (NET recommended to treat prominent symptoms also).
• • English speaking.
• • Able to travel to one of the therapy centres.
• • Able to consent to the research, as assessed by both the clinical psychologist supporting recruitment and the student delivering NET.
• Carer participants must be:
• • 18 or over (no upper age limit).
• • English speaking to undertake informant questionnaires.
• • Able to comment on the symptoms of traumatic stress experienced daily by the participant.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• Participants will be excluded if they are:
• • Substance dependent (NET requires participants to process traumatic experiences in detail; often substances are used as a way to block out these memories and therefore may impact on the therapy).
• • Experiencing psychosis as assessed by both the clinical psychologist supporting recruitment and the student delivering NET.
• • Currently an inpatient (NET at this time would be inappropriate due to challenging behaviour/level of illness).
• • Currently engaging in a trauma-focused therapy with their psychologist (it would not be appropriate to interrupt potentially beneficial treatment).
• • Currently engaging in other research projects (this would burden the participant and depending on the nature may affect results of this project).
• Carer participants will be excluded if:
• • • They lack capacity to consent to take part in the research, as assessed by both the clinical psychologist supporting recruitment and the student delivering NET.