(PS13-C66) Adapting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp) to the Inpatient Setting

Inpatient psychiatric care aims to provide comprehensive mental health care, which includes psychological services (Evlat, Wood, & Glover, 2021). As many individuals treated in the inpatient setting present with symptoms of psychosis, providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp) is a key service to effectively deliver. CBTp is an evidence-based treatment that is useful for individuals at different stages of symptomatology, including clinical high risk, early psychosis, and chronic psychosis (Turner et al., 2020; Valmaggia et al., 2008). Moreover, there is evidence to suggest the CBTp can be successful without the use of antipsychotic medication (Morrison et al., 2014; 2018; 2020). While there is extensive research illuminating the utility of CBTp, there are currently several barriers to implementing it in the psychiatric inpatient setting. First, there is a global barrier to accessing talk therapy in the inpatient setting. The Care Quality Commission’s (2009) national survey has revealed that in the inpatient setting, “only 29% of service users receive talk therapy.” Moreover, “25% did not receive therapy despite wanting to” because of the unavailability of psychological therapy and predominance of medication treatment (Evlat, Wood, & Glover, 2021). Second, there is a gap in the literature that provides evidence-based direction regarding how to best adapt CBTp to the inpatient setting and how to measure the effectiveness of integrated treatment that includes CBTp. In this poster, we identify barriers to effective delivery of CBTp in the inpatient setting, discuss how CBTp may be modified into a briefer intervention that meets the demands of the inpatient setting, and provide qualitative data illustrating the benefits and drawbacks of these modifications. These modifications include consideration of how the treatment itself may be adapted as well as proposals about how psychologists may most effectively work alongside other team members to integrate CBTp conceptualization and treatment considerations into the interdisciplinary team treatment approach.  Further implementation and quantitative evaluation of CBTp in an inpatient psychiatric setting is needed to support continued refinement of the intervention in order to meet the needs and priorities of individuals with psychosis.