Telephone CBT Evaluation

Introduction

In July 2001, the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) introduced the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) program. This program aims to improve consumers' access to high quality primary mental health care, through a number of components, key among which is the Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) component which supports GPs and allied health professionals (predominantly psychologists, but also social workers, mental health nurses, occupational therapists and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers) to work together to provide optimal mental health care. Specifically, this component enables GPs to refer consumers with high prevalence disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety) to allied health professionals for six sessions of evidence-based mental health care (predominantly Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT), delivered in six time-limited sessions with an option of a further six sessions following a mental health review by the referring GP. One hundred and fourteen Divisions of General Practice are facilitating this collaborative approach to mental health care through 108 projects (53 rural; 55 urban).

Until 1 July 2008, the sessions of care delivered through the ATAPS projects were all face-to-face. DoHA is currently running a trial which involves substituting telephone-based CBT (T-CBT) for face-to-face services in approximately 20 rural and remote Divisions of General Practice under the existing ATAPS model (i.e., referral by a GP for 6-12 sessions of care from an allied health professional). The majority of these Divisions of General Practice will have already been running ATAPS projects in which face-to-face CBT has been delivered. The trial is running for 12 months, from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009.

Resources

• TCBT-evaluation-information-for-project-officers.pdf: Evaluation information for project officers
• TCBT-evaluation-forms.pdf: Telephone CBT Evaluation Forms
• TCBT-evaluation-checklist-for-AHPs.pdf: Evaluation checklist for AHPs
• TCBT-consumer-experience-survey.pdf: Consumer Survey
• http://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/groups/dass/: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales(DASS) website