Acceptability of and intention to use the Unified Protocol delivered in group format in the Spanish Public Health System

Abstract

Background: The high prevalence of emotional disorders leads to a high demand for mental care which results in high costs and long waiting lists in public mental health settings. The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) is a recent emotion-regulation-based intervention that can be a cost-effective solution in public mental health settings due its transdiagnostic approach and the possibility to apply it in group format. However, the acceptability by mental healthcare professionals (MHCPs) delivering the UP in group format has not been explored.Methods: Thirty-three MHCPs, grouped into MHCPs without previous experience and MHCPs with experience in delivering the UP, were asked about aspects of acceptability and intention to use. Quantitative analysis was carried out to explore MHCPs acceptability. Furthermore, qualitative opinion about UP were collected through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to explore MHCPs opinion of delivering the UP intervention in a group format, within the Spanish Public Mental Health System. Results:The results showed high scores in all acceptability dimensions and intention to use in the future. SWOT analysis showed strengths and opportunities focusing on its transdiagnostic nature and the cost-effective benefits of group treatment, and weaknesses and threats related to the limited material and human resources. Conclusions: Findings indicate high acceptability of the UP by MHCPs workingwithin the Spanish Public Mental Health System and also identified areas for improvements. In order to enhance the dissemination and implementation of the UP, it is essential to consider MHCPs' perceptions and to be open to their suggestions.

Study on the use, acceptability and implementation of the Unified Protocol in general health psychologists in Spain

“…These results were observed in those GHPs with no experience in the application of the UP but not in those with experience in its application. These results are in line with previous work indicating that younger professionals have a more positive attitude towards the adoption of EBPTs (Aarons & Sawitzky, 2006) but are contrary to those obtained by Peris-Baquero et al (2021), where age correlated positively and statistically significantly with the intention of future use in those Psychologists Specialized in Clinical Psychology with experience in the use of the UP. It seems that age has different associations with intention to use the UP in future or some aspects regarding the TFA when professionals are working in the public or private sector in Spain.…”

“…This indicates that for all participants, the theoretical approach by which the UP achieves improvements in patients' emotional regulation and the efficacy of the UP in helping patients to regulate their emotions are associated with their intention to use the UP in the future. These results are also found in the research conducted by Peris-Baquero et al (2021), specifically the relationship between intention to use in the future with Affective Atittude and Intervention Coherence. Finally, in the group of inexperienced GHPs a relationship was also found between Self-Efficacy and intention to use in the future.…”

“…Likewise, high scores were found in the intention to use the UP in the future in GHPs who had previously used the UP and those who had not used it. These results were also obtained in the study by Peris-Baquero et al (2021), where a high acceptance was found, in all its constructs, by Psychologists Specialized in Clinical Psychology working in the public context. Similarly to that study, the present study also found high scores in intention to use it in future both in GHPs who had used the UP (i.e., to continue using it) and also in those who had never used it before.…”

“…Regarding patients, different studies on the acceptability of the UP in clinical samples have found high levels of acceptance and satisfaction (Bentley et al, 2018;Osma et al, 2019;Sauer-Zavala et al, 2019). In relation to acceptability on the part of the therapists, the only study that has been found in relation to the UP is the one carried out by Peris-Baquero et al (2021), with a sample of Psychologists Specialists in Clinical Psychology working in the Spanish Public Mental Health System. This study utilized the TFA and results showed high scores in all dimensions of acceptability, as well as a high intention to use in the future.…”

Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Group Format in Spain: Results of a Noninferiority Randomized Controlled Trial at 15 Months after Treatment Onset

“…Regarding the effectiveness of the UP, to date, several studies have analyzed the efficacy of the UP [34][35][36] founding moderate to large effect sizes in the reduction of ED symptomatology (Hedges' g between 0.45 and 1.11). In addition, the UP has also shown good results in terms of acceptability by the psychologists involved in the treatment, with overall acceptability values of 4.30 out of 5 (SD = 0:68, range 3-5) and intention to use in the future 4.54 out of 5 (SD = 0:56, range=3-5) [37].…”