Background: Children and young people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience high rates of mental ill health and stress due to the emotional and cognitive energy required to manage their condition. Our team has codesigned Wellbeing T1D, a brief trauma-informed online intervention for adolescents living with T1D. This 5-week intervention will teach skills to promote problem solving, improve emotional regulation and promote helpful thinking and coping.
Objectives: The aim of this project is to pilot the Wellbeing project with Australian adolescents, aged 13-17 years. The feasibility and potential effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated. We hypothesise that the Wellbeing project will show efficacy in improving the well-being, resilience and coping skills of adolescents with T1D.
Methods: A double arm, pre-post longitudinal study design will be employed, with an intervention group and a non-intervention group receiving treatment as usual, to determine the potential effectiveness of the intervention content and delivery. We aim to recruit approximately 40 adolescents, at least 6 months post-T1D diagnosis, to take part in the intervention. We will measure changes in participants' level of optimism, self-compassion and diabetes-specific distress and resilience at three timepoints.
Conclusion: This protocol outlines the first trauma-informed intervention aimed at addressing symptoms of traumatic stress in this population. Wellbeing T1D has the potential to be used in a variety of settings (both clinical and non-clinical) to reduce the disease burden on adolescents living with T1D and their families, improve long-term mental health outcomes and ultimately reduce morbidity from diabetes and its other physical complications.
Keywords: adolescents; mental health; psychosocial intervention; type 1 diabetes.
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