Improving mental health outcomes in complex PTSD
Context
People who have been through a number of traumatic experiences may suffer from long-lasting severe distress and difficulties. Sometimes they try to cope by using drugs or alcohol or show other risky behaviours.
Whilst these behaviours may help the person feel better for a short period, they tend to worsen the person’s overall mental health in the long term. A group programme called Seeking Safety has been developed to help support people in building coping skills to help manage their trauma experiences. It’s been piloted in the NHS with some promising outcomes, though has not yet been tested rigorously.
The research
The aim of our trial is to investigate whether it is feasible and acceptable to undertake a randomised control trial of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Seeking Safety as a treatment to improve mental health outcomes for individuals with Complex PTSD compared with a wait-list control.
The trial will be run within two community mental health teams of the South West Yorkshire Partnership Teaching NHS Foundation Trust.