Dr Sam Malins has led a number of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) group programmes for people who have experienced cancer diagnosis and treatment. The groups aim was to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression for people who have had cancer, because there can be double-to-triple the risk of these problems for them, compared to the general population. Despite MBCT being clinically effective, Dr Malins noticed that a high number of patients were dropping out, largely due to cancer-related barriers.
Dr Malins approached Florence to develop a retention and relapse prevention package where patients received tailored messages about the group content, between session activities and the following session. They also continued to receive personalised reminder messages after the group had finished. They were asked to rate their emotional wellbeing and received individualised support and advice through their mobile phone based on how they were feeling. The text messages are designed with the patient during therapy, so that it is their own words of advice sent to them as a text message.
The impact was immediate and profound. Florence users were nearly eight times more likely to complete the programme and are experiencing 50% greater improvement in symptoms of depression compared to non-users. In an evaluation of post-treatment messaging, those who received a message from Flo experienced up to 25% greater improvement in overall health at the 12-month follow-up.
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Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society
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Registered address for case study submission company:
Sam Malins, DClinPsy PhD, Clinical Psychologist,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust;
Academic Unit of Mental Health & Clinical Neuroscience
Institute of Mental Health
University of Nottingham Innovation Park
Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG7 2TU
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psHEALTH (Florence)
Mercury House
117 Waterloo Road
London, SE1 8UL
Website: www.getflorence.net
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