Using the Intervention Mapping Approach to Develop a Mental Health Intervention: A Case Study on Improving the Reporting Standards for Developing Psychological Interventions.

Joep Van Agteren,Gareth Furber,Daniel B Fassnacht,Alexis Howard,Kathina Ali,Lydia Woodyatt,Matthew Iasiello,Michael Kyrios

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.648678

Abstract

Replicating or distilling information from psychological interventions reported in the scientific literature is hindered by inadequate reporting, despite the existence of various methodologies to guide study reporting and intervention development. This article provides an in-depth explanation of the scientific development process for a mental health intervention, and by doing so illustrates how intervention development methodologies can be used to improve development reporting standards of interventions. Intervention development was guided by the Intervention Mapping approach and the Theoretical Domains Framework. It relied on an extensive literature review, input from a multi-disciplinary group of stakeholders and the learnings from projects on similar psychological interventions. The developed programme, called the “Be Well Plan”, focuses on self-exploration to determine key motivators, resources and challenges to improve mental health outcomes. The programme contains an online assessment to build awareness about one’s mental health status. In combination with the exploration of different evidence-based mental health activities from various therapeutic backgrounds, the programme teaches individuals to create a personalised mental health and wellbeing plan. The use of best-practice intervention development frameworks and evidence-based behavioural change techniques aims to ensure optimal intervention impact, while reporting on the development process provides researchers and other stakeholders with an ability to scientifically interrogate and replicate similar psychological interventions.

Highlights

Psychological interventions, being activities or groups of activities aimed to change behaviours, feelings and emotional states (Hodges et al, 2011), come in many shapes and sizes
Theme 1: There Is a Need for Mental Health Interventions to Incorporate a Specific Focus on Positive and Adaptive States, in Addition to Taking Psychological Distress Into Account Psychological interventions for mental health are often thought of to be synonymous to interventions aimed at treating or preventing mental illness or psychological distress
This is reflected in research on psychological interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness, with studies largely focussing on their effectiveness in improving outcomes of illness and psychological distress (Hofmann et al, 2010, 2012; Swain et al, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Psychological interventions, being activities or groups of activities aimed to change behaviours, feelings and emotional states (Hodges et al, 2011), come in many shapes and sizes. Despite various welcome initiatives such the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) the intervention literature typically lacks in-depth descriptions of psychological interventions and the way they were created (Pino et al, 2012; Candy et al, 2018) These reporting challenges are problematic for the scientific method as they make it difficult to replicate interventions, interpret which underlying intervention components are effective and draw robust conclusions about how these interventions have been developed (Chalmers and Glasziou, 2009; Hoffmann et al, 2017). The application of similar methodologies has yet to receive traction in psychological science

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