IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0100 KCLCA IOP/BEF
Held at: King's College London College Archives
Title: Institute of Psychiatry, Befriending Project
Date(s): 1991-1995
Level of description: collection
Extent: 15 boxes, 1.5 cubic metres
Name of creator(s): King's College London | Institute of Psychiatry | Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Befriending Project was established in 1991 by Professor George Brown and Dr Tirril Harris, based at the Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry Department of the Institute of Psychiatry, later part of King's College London. This was a randomised controlled trial, comprising two stages. The project investigated whether befriending could improve remission rates from chronic depression.
The first stage of the project comprised interviews; the sample patients were divided into three groups and given ID numbers; these were: the intervention group containing 60 patients, the control group containing 60 patients and a group of 56 volunteer befrienders.
During the second stage of the project those in the control group, who had been followed up and found not to have recovered, were offered befriending and many accepted. These patients were given a second ID number and formed part of the second stage intervention group; new participants and new control group members joined the project at this stage.
Professor George Brown's teams used psychosocial measures originally developed to explain the onset of depressive episodes, factors which might also perpetuate disorder, including the LEDS (Life Events and Difficulties Schedule) with SLEDS (Shortened Life Events and Difficulties Schedule), Professor George Brown and Dr Tirril Harris, 1978; the SESS (Self Evaluation and Social Support Schedule), Brown et al, 1986, 1990; the COPI (Coping with Severe Events and Difficulties Interview), Professor Antonia Bifulco and Brown, 1996; the CECA (Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse) with MINICECA, Bifulco, Brown and Harris, 1994; the ASI (Attachment Style Interview) Bifulco et al, 2002 with the Bedford College version of the SCAN (Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry), Professor John Wing et al, 1990. The project spanned four years.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The Befriending Project contains the patient records of those participating in the randomised control trial, 1991-1995; most comprise two files per respondent; one baseline and one following-up a year later.
These files comprise the majority of the collection (14 boxes), most containing rating schedule crisis support reports, self assessment questionnaires and forms filled in by interviewers. These files may include assessment forms concerning parental care in childhood, physical/sexual abuse in childhood, institutional stay in childhood, coping records, fixed demographic information, difficulty schedules, life events schedules, work, past experience of former husband/cohabitee, checklist of present state examination symptoms, change point record for psychiatric disorder and a follow up evaluations summarising the patient's experiences.
The remainder of the collection (1 box), comprises information about the questions posed to participants and how these questions should be phrased; the corresponding rating schedules completed for each participant, potential for befriending and data for the relationship between the befriended woman and her matched volunteer.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
This colleciton is uncatalogued and is currently arranged in its accession order. Boxes 1 to 14 are arranged by patient ID number in ascending order, from B001 to B656.
Conditions governing access:
The collection contains sensitive personal information and medical details and is closed under statutory rules governing data protection.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Collection closed to the general public.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
No additional finding aids.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred to King's College London College Archives from the Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry Department, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, on 19 October 2007.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Accession number 510.
Archivist's note: Sources: Harris T O, Brown G W and Robinson R Befriending as an intervention for chronic depression among women in an inner city I: Randomised Controlled Trial (British Journal of Psychiatry, 174,1999)
Harris T O, Brown G W and Robinson R, 'Befriending as an intervention for chronic depression among women in an inner city II: Role of Fresh-start Experiences and Baseline Psychosocial factors in Remission from Depression' (British Journal of Psychiatry, 174,1999)
Compiled by Samantha Velumyl.
Date(s) of descriptions: January 2008