Cognitive-behavioural conjoint therapy
Peer support
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Relationships
Mobilizing Couple HOPES: A Guided, Internet-Delivered Couples Intervention for PTSD, to Peer- Support Providers for Canadian Military and Veteran
Lay summary
Couple HOPES (Helping Overcome PTSD and Enhancing Satisfaction) is an online program that aims to address both PTSD symptoms and relationship issues.
The online nature of this program reduces key issues to receiving support such as stigma, financial strain, or geographic location.
Couple HOPES is adapted from a successfully tested treatment called Cognitive-Behavioural Conjoint Therapy (CBCT), developed by Dr. Candice Monson.
The program includes seven online learning modules with brief accompanying assignments. Each person, along with their chosen partner (e.g., spouse, adult child, parent), is assigned a coach who helps them understand and use new coping skills. Couple HOPES has been successfully delivered to Canadian military members,
Veterans and first responders, as well as U.S. Veterans.
For the first time, Couple HOPES coaches will be Veterans or Veteran Family members who have formal training in peer support.
One aim of this project is to examine whether the virtual training for the Couple HOPES coaches is successful or not. Another aim is to measure the impact of the program across multiple areas. These include the use and delivery of the program (‘implementation’), success of the program (‘effectiveness’), as well as coach and client-specific results such as satisfaction.
Scientific summary
Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and debilitating condition that can affect a number of Canadian military personnel; PTSD is additionally associated with relationship problems. Recognizing the need to provide services that can address more than one issue at a time, Couple HOPES (Helping Overcome PTSD and Enhancing Satisfaction) is an online program that aims to address both PTSD symptoms and relationship issues (www.couplehopes.com). The online nature of this program also addresses identified barriers in receiving support such as stigma, accessibility, geographic dispersion, financial constraints, and logistical barriers. Based on the demonstrated efficacy of Cognitive-Behavioural Conjoint Therapy (CBCT) developed by Dr. Candice Monson, this Couple HOPES consists of 7 online educational and interactive modules with brief accompanying assignments. Each person using Couple HOPES, with their chosen partner (e.g., spouse, adults child, parent), is assigned a coach who helps them understand and use the new skills taught in each module. Couple HOPES has been successfully delivered to Canadian military members, Veterans and first responders, as well as U.S. Veterans.For the first time, Couple HOPES coaches (those supporting the dyads) will be Veterans or Veteran Family members who have formal training in peer support. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of training these peer support providers (PSP) virtually to be coaches and to measure the resulting impacts on a variety of outcomes, including implementation outcomes (e.g., setting acceptability, feasibility), service outcomes (e.g., effectiveness), coach outcomes (e.g., competence, consultation satisfaction), and client outcomes (e.g., program satisfaction, symptomatology).