Relationships in Good Hands - Clinical and Cost-effectiveness of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

Summary

The research question is: Can the research recommend better ways for social care and health services to work work together to help adoptive and foster families? Can a therapy called DDP improve the mental health of 5-12 year old fostered or adopted children? Is DDP worth the commitment families need to give to it - and the extra cost to the services that deliver it? More than half of adopted or fostered children in the UK have mental health problems including ADHD (i.e. hyperactivity, impulsive behaviour and poor concentration), antisocial behaviour and problems with relationships. Abused and neglected children are more likely than others to have problems in school, become homeless, get involved in crime and even die young (e.g. from suicide), yet there are no fully tested treatments for such complex mental health problems. This is a huge problem because early treatment could greatly improve children's life chances - and reduce strain on health and social care budgets.

There is a Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) a parent-child therapy that takes around 20 sessions and focusses on "Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy". There is not yet available really good evidence for or against it: many UK therapists like DDP, but it is a big commitment for families: once a week for about six months children will need time off school, the parents will need time off work - and this can be hard to explain to school friends, colleagues and bosses. Research team doesn't just need to know if DDP improves children's mental health - they also need to know if the commitment needed is worth it for families and whether the costs to services outweigh the benefits.

In PHASE 1 the research team will find out whether DDP can work smoothly in the three different settings where it is usually delivered: the NHS, Social Care and Private Practice. Many abused children need other medical and psychiatric support so, the research will assess whether children can get any additional assessments or referrals they may need .

In PHASE 2, the research team plans to find out if it is practically possible to run a high quality trial of DDP. This phase will involve 60 families to find out if they are happy to take part (whether offered DDP or usual services). If all goes to plan, these 60 families will contribute to the final results, along with the 180 families involved in the next PHASE 3 when the research team will test whether DDP is better than usual services and, if it is, whether the improvements in child mental health outweigh the costs.

What impact will the research have? This study will make recommendations about how services should work together to help abused and neglected children and their families. If the researcher team finds that DDP is worth the time and money, it could improve the mental health of abused and neglected children across the world.

Conditions

• Mental Health
• Psychiatric Problems
• Child Neglect
• Maltreatment
• Adoption
• Child Behaviour Problem
• DDP

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)

DDP involves approximately twenty 1 hour sessions (usually over 6-9 months) with the adoptive parent/foster carer and child, facilitated by a specifically trained therapist. The role of the therapist during sessions is to maintain an attuned relationship with both child and parent - modelling and encouraging development of a similarly attuned relationship between the child and parent. Therapists are trained to use Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE). Our research suggests that key mechanisms of action in DDP might include the active participation of the parents and increased carer empathy and emotional warmth for the child. DDP experts believe this helps build parental capacity for attuned dialogue with the child, co-creation of the meanings underlying child behaviour, and co-regulation of experienced emotions aiming to address four main problem areas: 1. child emotional regulation 2. parental stress 3. the parent-child relationship 4. child mental health.

BEHAVIORAL

Services as Usual (SAU)

SAU tends to be case-dependent with therapists and social workers attempting to respond to the sometimes changeable needs of the family as needs arise. At the time of our UK mapping and modelling work, these services were usually CAMHS based. This may have changed, at least for adoptive families, with the advent of the Adoption Support Fund, which, since May 2015, has allowed local authorities / adoption agencies to apply for funding for "essential therapeutic services". A wide range of interventions, many with a scant evidence base, have been purchased - sometimes from private practitioners - since 2015. In addition, relevant NICE guidelines, particularly those on Looked After and Accommodated Children, Attachment and Child Abuse and Neglect, have been published or updated.Our detailed qualitative and quantitative process evaluation throughout all study Phases will be crucial to carefully characterise SAU in all study sites.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Oxford

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Nottingham

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Glasgow

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Helen Minnis, Professor · University of Glasgow

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

5 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-05-01

Primary Completion

2025-07-31

Completion

2025-07-31

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations