Plain English Summary
Not provided at time of registration
Trial website
http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/iopweb/virtual/?path=/hsr/prism/tag/
Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Dr Mike Slade
ORCID ID
Contact details
Health Services Research Department (Box P029)
David Goldberg building
Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park
Denmark Hill
London
SE5 8AF
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7848 0795
m.slade@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
SDO 71/2003
Study information
Scientific title
Acronym
TAG
Study hypothesis
Primary hypothesis: Using the TAG will significantly improve the agreement between the GP and the adult mental health team on the appropriateness of the referral
Secondary hypotheses: Receiving a TAG with a referral letter will make it significantly easier for the mental health team to identify
a. The urgency of the referral
b. The most appropriate professional to make the initial assessment
Ethics approval
Added as of 06/08/2007: The study was approved by Metropolitan Multi-centre Ethics Committee (04/MRE11/8) with Local REC approval in London and Manchester, and research governance support from the relevant Primary Care Trusts and Mental Health Trusts.
Study design
Randomised controlled trial.
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Not specified
Trial type
Not Specified
Patient information sheet
Condition
Mental health
Intervention
Control group: referrers to CMHTs asked to make referrals using a referral letter or form as per existing practice.
Intervention group: referrers to CMHTs asked to complete a Threshold Assessment Grid (TAG) in addition to a referral letter, and given guidance on its contents.
Amendments to the trial as of 01 June 2005:
1. We will now be paying GP practices £100 to cover administrative costs
incurred in providing us with service use data for the 5-10 patients they referred to mental health teams during Jan - June 2005. To facilitate this
service use data collection, the name and date of birth of referred
patients will be recorded at the mental health team referral meeting.
2. We will now be paying GPs £100 for their time in being interviewed to learn about their experiences of using TAG
3. We will be interviewing key informants in mental health teams about their experience in receiving TAGs with the referral letter
4. We will be extending the randomised controlled trial (RCT) from 6 to 9 months, so it finishes on 30 September 2005 instead of 30 June 2005.
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Specified
Drug names
Primary outcome measures
CMHT rating of appropriateness of the referral.
Secondary outcome measures
CMHT rating of the quality of information to inform decision-making about urgency of the referral and which professional should make the initial assessment. In addition to this, service usage data will be collected to allow cost effectiveness analysis.
Overall trial start date
01/01/2005
Overall trial end date
30/09/2005
Reason abandoned
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
General Practitioners (GPs) and other referrers to Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs).
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Adult
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
73 GP practices (37 control, 36 intervention)
Participant exclusion criteria
None
Recruitment start date
01/01/2005
Recruitment end date
30/09/2005
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Health Services Research Department (Box P029)
London
SE5 8AF
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
NHS Service Delivery and Organisation Programme (SDO) (UK)
Sponsor details
NCCSDO
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
99 Gower Street
London
WC1E 6AZ
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7612 7983
sdo@lshtm.ac.uk
Sponsor type
Government
Website
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R&D Programme (UK) (ref: SDO 71/2003)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Results - basic reporting
Publication summary
Results:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17651489
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18515810
Publication citations
-
Chew-Graham C, Slade M, Montana C, Stewart M, Gask L, A qualitative study of referral to community mental health teams in the UK: exploring the rhetoric and the reality., BMC Health Serv Res, 2007, 7, 117, doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-7-117.
-
Slade M, Gask L, Leese M, McCrone P, Montana C, Powell R, Stewart M, Chew-Graham C, Failure to improve appropriateness of referrals to adult community mental health services--lessons from a multi-site cluster randomized controlled trial., Fam Pract, 2008, 25, 3, 181-190, doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmn025.