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. 2019 Dec 30;9(1):91.
doi: 10.3390/jcm9010091.

Why Uptake of Blended Internet-Based Interventions for Depression Is Challenging: A Qualitative Study on Therapists' Perspectives

Mayke Mol  1   2 , Claire van Genugten  1   2 , Els Dozeman  1   2 , Digna J F van Schaik  1   2 , Stasja Draisma  1   2 , Heleen Riper  1   2   3   4 , Jan H Smit  1   2
Affiliations

Why Uptake of Blended Internet-Based Interventions for Depression Is Challenging: A Qualitative Study on Therapists' Perspectives

Mayke Mol et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

(1) Background: Blended cognitive behavioral therapy (bCBT; online and face-to-face sessions) seems a promising alternative alongside regular face-to-face CBT depression treatment in specialized mental health care organizations. Therapists are key in the uptake of bCBT. This study focuses on therapists' perspectives on usability, satisfaction, and factors that promote or hinder the use of bCBT in routine practice; (2) Methods: Three focus groups (n = 8, n = 7, n = 6) and semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 15) were held throughout the Netherlands. Beforehand, the participating therapists (n = 36) completed online questionnaires on usability and satisfaction. Interviews were analyzed by thematic analysis; (3) Results: Therapists found the usability sufficient and were generally satisfied with providing bCBT. The thematic analysis showed three main themes on promoting and hindering factors: (1) therapists' needs regarding bCBT uptake, (2) therapists' role in motivating patients for bCBT, and (3) therapists' experiences with bCBT; (4) Conclusions: Overall, therapists were positive; bCBT can be offered by all CBT-trained therapists and future higher uptake is expected. Especially the pre-set structure of bCBT was found beneficial for both therapists and patients. Nevertheless, therapists did not experience promised time-savings-rather, the opposite. Besides, there are still teething problems and therapeutic shortcomings that need improvement in order to motivate therapists to use bCBT.

Keywords: blended treatment; cognitive behavioral therapy; depressive disorder; implementation; routine care; therapists’ perspective.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. The authors were not involved in the development of the bCBT module.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study outline.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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