ADAPTATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY PRACTICES: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS AND ALGORITHM OF WORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/psych.studies/2024.4.1Keywords:
psychological intervention, psychotherapeutic intervention, protocol, sociocultural adaptation, evidence-based practice of psychotherapy, socio-cultural factors.Abstract
The article describes the main methodological aspects of cultural adaptation of evidence-based psychotherapy practices. Numerous sociocultural factors, such as lifestyle, family and generational relationships, physical environment, poverty, discrimination, safety, etc. have a significant impact on a person’s psychological well-being. Culture (language features, traditional views on mental health, stereotypes about participants in the psychotherapeutic process, and worldview) is key to understanding how symptoms of mental disorders and help-seeking behavior manifest themselves, and thus how psychotherapy providers diagnose clients/patients and work with them. All of this necessitates the adaptation and modification of evidence-based psychotherapeutic practices in accordance with the demands, needs, and peculiarities of Ukrainian society. The article describes a general algorithm for sociocultural adaptation of psychotherapeutic interventions, consisting of 11 stages (from the choice of practice and organizing a working expert group to testing the effectiveness of its adapted version). The socio-cultural factors that influence the implementation of psychotherapeutic practice and should be taken into account when adapting protocols and intervention programs are described in detail. The article highlights the unchanged elements of evidence-based practice and the variable components that warrant cultural adaptation procedures. Changes to intervention protocols during the adaptation process are categorized into three directions: (1) eliminating elements irrelevant in the Ukrainian context; (2) adding elements to enhance understanding of the practice (e.g., cases, examples of exercise applications, glossaries of terms); and (3) transforming elements to align with the sociocultural context. The involvement of public stakeholders (professional community and target groups) in the discussion of proposed modifications is substantiated, and the tasks of working with focus groups are formulated. Finally, the main ways to test the effectiveness of adapted practices are outlined.
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