Nearly two-thirds of mental disorders emerge before age 25, yet only a minority of
young people have access to adequate mental health care. Timely access to mental
health care reduces suffering and improves outcomes, yet Jigsaw have struggled
with delays in young people accessing their services due to traditional models of talk
therapy care requiring screening and assessment followed by a number of therapy
sessions over an extended period. To improve accessibility, Jigsaw introduced
single-session therapy as a first pathway to care in June 2023.
Single-session therapy (SST) offer a promising path toward improving accessibility,
cost-effectiveness and completion rates for youth mental health services. Evidence
supports the capacity of SST to reduce youth mental health difficulties. However, less
is known about the implementation of SST in primary care services for young people.
Documenting the implementation of SST and assessing intervention fidelity across
services in Ireland is essential to ensure the delivery of SST is effective, consistent,
and aligned with Jigsaw’s intended objectives.
This research aims to:
1. Co-develop a programme theory with clinicians (n=15) and young people
(n=15), and conduct a rapid evidence review on SST so that
a comprehensive understanding of the intervention’s core components will
be documented.
2. Develop a fidelity checklist to assess whether single-session therapy is
delivered as planned.
3. Evaluate intervention fidelity (provider behaviour) and young people’s
engagement and acceptability (recipient behaviour) of SST. Clinical case
notes of sessions (n=75) and audio recordings (n=30) will be reviewed and
reliably rated for fidelity against fidelity checklist. Routine feedback captured
on Jigsaw’s data system will evaluate youth engagement.
4. Analyze Jigsaw’s single session’s performance by evaluating access to
timely care and improvement in therapeutic goals.
The results will help improve the sustainability of SST delivery across services and
ensure best practices are followed in SST delivery across sites in Ireland.
