In December 2009 Changing Minds was commissioned to carry out an audit of the process and outcomes of delivering Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) in the East Midlands region from staff and service user perspectives. The aim of the audit was to evaluate IPT as a high intensity intervention by:

• Evaluating the pre-course experience of trainees on IPT training and their views of the course as participants
• Describing the decision-making processes when IPT is chosen as the preferred method of intervention
• Evaluating satisfaction outcome measures for IPT ‘sponsors’ (commissioners, managers, trainers), therapists, and service users

The sample was comprised from:

• cohorts of trainees accessing the East Midlands IPT programmes (in 2009/10)
• The sponsors, supervisors and trainers of the IPT training programme
• Trained IPT therapists delivering the intervention in the East Midlands
• Service users accessing IPT

The methods used in the audit were:

• A structured questionnaires for IPT trainees/therapists
• A structured questionnaire for ‘sponsors’
• A structured questionnaire for patients who were receiving or had completed IPT intervention
• A second structured questionnaire only for those patients who had completed IPT intervention
• In-depth semi-structured telephone interviews for IPT trainees/therapists

The questionnaires were distributed during January and February 2010 and were returned throughout the months to April and the data was entered and analysed during that month. The in-depth telephone interviews took place in April 2010 and were analysed during May.

The report, which has been produced in collaboration with Changing Minds, can be downloaded here: