Evaluation of a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: Rationale, Design and Preliminary Outcome Data

The debate concerning the provision of psychotherapy services for people with intellectual disabilities has moved on from issues of ‘relevance’ through ‘equity’ to the current issue of ‘effectiveness’. The latter is hard to prove from the available research and clinical literature. In this paper we report preliminary results from an evaluation of a psychodynamic psychotherapy service for adults with intellectual disabilities. We present the rationale and design, including details of process and outcome measures, and preliminary results. Issues concerning operationalisation of such a study in normal clinical practice are discussed. Preliminary results suggest good outcome and so we seek to enable other service‐providers to take account of our plans in designing similar studies.