Acceptability testing of the Carers-ID intervention to support the mental health of family carers of people with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities

Mark Linden, Maria Truesdale, Rachel Aine Leonard*, Michael Brown, Lynne Marsh, Stuart Todd, N. Hughes, Trisha Forbes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background
Providing care and support for a person with intellectual disabilities can be challenging and may negatively impact on family carers’ health and wellbeing. A online support programme was co-designed with charitable organisations and family carers, to help meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of family carers.

Objective
To test the acceptability of a newly developed online support programme for carers of people with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities.

Methods
A sequential mixed-methods explanatory design was utilised. An adapted version of the Acceptability of Health Apps among Adolescents Scale was distributed to family carers across the United Kingdom and Ireland who had viewed the Carers-ID.com intervention. Participants were then invited to take part in an online interview. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed separately and then brought together through the triangulation protocol.

Results
Seventy family carers (47 female, 23 male) responded to the acceptability survey, with 10 (7 female, 3 male) taking part in interviews. Carers expressed high levels of programme acceptability (mean = 75.43 out of 88). Six themes were generated from interviews with family carers; i) time is precious, ii) the breadth and depth of module content, iii) it was somebody’s experience; it was meaningful, iv) won’t work for everyone, v) representation: people I could identify with, and vi) module specific suggestions for future changes. Based on our triangulation, four areas of convergence were identified: programme usability and ease, attitudes towards the programme, perceptions of effectiveness, and programme relatability.

Conclusions
To be acceptable, online interventions for carers of people with intellectual disability need to be accessible, understandable and easy to use, as carers’ free time can be limited. It would be important to investigate the effectiveness of online interventions for family carers, specifically considering which carers the intervention works for, and for whom it may not.


Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0313081
Number of pages17
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume19
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2024

Keywords

  • acceptability testing
  • Carers-ID intervention
  • mental health of family carers

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