How are the programs used?
Adjunct to other therapies
Programs such as MoodGYM and e-couch can be incorporated as an adjunct to the therapy provided by a qualified psychological therapist. This adjunctive use can occur in either individual or group settings.
In a recent study, the addition of MoodGYM to a brief face to face individual CBT intervention for young people with mild-moderate levels of depression and anxiety was more effective than the face to face intervention by itself (Sethi, Campbell and Ellis, 2010 – see MoodGYM Research).
How e-hub programs can be used in this way
Therapists may work in a structured manner through each part of the program with the person and discuss the material in detail as part of the therapy. This helps the person to understand the material more deeply and practice using the skills in their everyday life.
This is similar to using a therapy manual except that e-hub programs are freely available and subject to vigorous evaluation and research.
Alternatively, therapists may choose to use specific parts of the programs that are the most relevant to the person's therapy – for example, the exercise toolkit in the Depression stream of e-couch, or the relaxation toolkit in the Anxiety & Worry stream.
How do the programs support adjunctive use?
Psychological therapists and other mental health professionals rountinely provide comprehensive assessments according to their professional training and area of work. Additional symptom monitoring is available through the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Questionnaires that are repeated in e-couch and MoodGYM. Users complete these questionnaires each time they complete a MoodGYM module. In e-couch, users complete the questionnaires whenever they login and can choose to complete them at the end of the module. Users can print out questionnaire data to provide to therapists.
Alternatively, therapists can print out copies of the questionnaires for users to complete during therapy and follow-up sessions. The Goldberg Questionnaires and norms are available on the e-hub Assist Resources page, as well as information about other assessment instruments used in e-hub programs, trials and clinical collaborations.
At the end of each of its modules MoodGYM provides a summary of material covered and of the user's progress. This summary can be printed out by the user and reviewed by the therapist. Therapists may also purchase Manuals to support using MoodGYM in this way.
