Open Pilot Trial of a Single-Session Consultation Service for Clients on Psychotherapy Wait-Lists

Abstract

Background. The demand for psychological services outpaces the number of available providers. Waitlists at mental health clinics range from weeks to months in length, and longer wait-times predict less favorable outcomes once treatment begins. There is a need for efficient, sustainable service models that provide faster access to care. Offering interim, low-intensity supports to treatment-seekers may both strengthen clinically-relevant proximal outcomes and prevent clinical deterioration while waiting for longer-term treatment. Thus, we tested the acceptability and short-term effects of a solution-focused single-session consultation (SSC), offered to individuals waiting for therapy at two outpatient mental health clinics. Method. Clients wait-listed for outpatient therapy at either clinic were offered an SSC. Participants self-reported overall psychological distress at baseline and two-week follow-up, along with levels of hopelessness and perceived agency at baseline and post-intervention. Participants also rated the SSC’s acceptability. Results. Of 90 treatment-seeking individuals offered an SSC, 46 (51.11%) scheduled an appointment, and 30 (65.21%) attended the session (M age = 31.2, 72.67% female). SSC recipients reported significant pre- to post-intervention improvements in perceived agency (d_z = 1.11, p < .001) and hopelessness (d_z = 1.43, p < .001). Psychological distress significantly decreased from baseline to follow-up (d_z = .73, p = .002). Participants rated SSC sessions as highly acceptable, useful, and worth recommending to others. Conclusions. A solution-focused single-session consultation was associated with improvements in hopelessness, agency, and psychological distress in treatment-seeking adults. Pending larger-scale controlled trials, the SSC may help prevent clinical deterioration among individuals on therapy wait-lists.

Acceptability and Utility of an Open-Access, Online Single-Session Intervention Platform for Adolescent Mental Health

“…The Program Feedback Scale (PFS) [ 63 ], which is routinely used to evaluate acceptability and user perceptions of SSIs [ 64 - 67 ], asks participants to rate agreement with seven statements indicating perceived acceptability and feasibility of their selected SSI (eg, “I enjoyed the program”) on a 5-point Likert scale (1=“really disagree”; 5=“totally agree”). The scale was adapted from existing, validated acceptability assessments of digital interventions; adaptations from existing scales were necessary in order to exclude items that are inapplicable to web-based SSIs (eg, items referencing frequency of use or interest in continuing to revisit the program).…”

COVID-19 Suicide Survivors—A Hidden Grieving Population

“…Schleider et al ( 112 , 113 ) developed and tested brief and accessible interventions, provided in non-traditional environments. They found that a single session of a solution-centered consultation was associated with a reduction in psychological distress in adults seeking psychotherapy.…”

Expanding the Reach of Psychosocial Services for Youth: Untapped Potential of Mentor-Delivered Single Session Interventions

“…Delivery of intentionally brief interventions also allows for consideration of youths' personal strengths and weaknesses in selecting service approaches. Moreover, data suggests that youth and their parents find SSIs "extremely acceptable," in addition to effective in decreasing mental illness symptomatology (Schleider et al, 2020c;Schleider et al, 2021).…”

“…As such, our approach offers a time-efficient training model. Moreover, trainings to deliver SSIs tend to be low-intensity themselves, sometimes lasting less than two hours (e.g., Schleider et al, 2021; alternatively, trainings are absent entirely, in the case of SSIs designed for youth self-administration, as in Schleider et al, 2020a). This training context is also relatively low stakes for mentor providers: SSI trainings take little time away from other tasks, while conferring tangible, immediately usable clinical skills and tools (Schleider et al, 2020b).…”