Replacing "Too Little, Too Late" with "a Bit Less, a Bit Sooner": Exploring the Potential of a Stepped-Care Approach to Relationship Health

Dev Crasta; Kayla  Knopp; Peter Britton; Tea Trillingsgaard; James Cordova

Replacing "Too Little, Too Late" with "a Bit Less, a Bit Sooner": Exploring the Potential of a Stepped-Care Approach to Relationship Health

Dev Crasta^*, Kayla Knopp, Peter Britton, Tea Trillingsgaard, James Cordova

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences

Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference abstract for conference › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Romantic relationship quality shows strong associations with individual well-being and mental health. Furthermore, maintaining romantic relationship quality is often a valued domain of living. While couple therapies demonstrate efficacy in reducing relationship distress, their intensive formats create barriers to attendance for couples with limited time, financial resources, or access to childcare. As a result, treatments are underutilized, with many couples delaying treatment for several years after problems emerge or dropping out after only a handful of sessions. Furthermore, these barriers often fall along lines of class privilege, meaning that couples with the highest risk of problems are also least likely to benefit from services. An alternative model is to focus on relationship-health as a continuum of services rather than the domain of a handful of specialists. Taking a systems view can expand the potential range of solutions that can be offered help a larger share of couples find fulfilling relationships. Furthermore, since these systems-level challenges can also be felt by individual clinicians (as challenging cases and high dropout rates), it means this change can reduce the burden on any one clinician. The symposium addresses this potential with four presentations united by the theme of broadening our focus beyond intensive couple therapy clinics to identify opportunities to increase service utilization at a systems level.

Translated title of the contribution	Erstatte "for lidt og for sent" med "lidt mindre, lidt før".: Udforskning af potentialet i en stepped-care tilgang til relationel sundhed
Original language	English
Publication date	18 Nov 2023
Publication status	Published - 18 Nov 2023
Event	ABCT 57th Annual Convention - Seattle Duration: 16 Nov 2023 → 19 Nov 2023

Conference

Conference	ABCT 57th Annual Convention
Location	Seattle
Period	16/11/2023 → 19/11/2023

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Cite this

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title = "Replacing {"}Too Little, Too Late{"} with {"}a Bit Less, a Bit Sooner{"}: Exploring the Potential of a Stepped-Care Approach to Relationship Health",

abstract = "Romantic relationship quality shows strong associations with individual well-being and mental health. Furthermore, maintaining romantic relationship quality is often a valued domain of living. While couple therapies demonstrate efficacy in reducing relationship distress, their intensive formats create barriers to attendance for couples with limited time, financial resources, or access to childcare. As a result, treatments are underutilized, with many couples delaying treatment for several years after problems emerge or dropping out after only a handful of sessions. Furthermore, these barriers often fall along lines of class privilege, meaning that couples with the highest risk of problems are also least likely to benefit from services. An alternative model is to focus on relationship-health as a continuum of services rather than the domain of a handful of specialists. Taking a systems view can expand the potential range of solutions that can be offered help a larger share of couples find fulfilling relationships. Furthermore, since these systems-level challenges can also be felt by individual clinicians (as challenging cases and high dropout rates), it means this change can reduce the burden on any one clinician. The symposium addresses this potential with four presentations united by the theme of broadening our focus beyond intensive couple therapy clinics to identify opportunities to increase service utilization at a systems level.",

author = "Dev Crasta and Kayla Knopp and Peter Britton and Tea Trillingsgaard and James Cordova",

year = "2023",

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language = "English",

note = "ABCT 57th Annual Convention ; Conference date: 16-11-2023 Through 19-11-2023",

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T1 - Replacing "Too Little, Too Late" with "a Bit Less, a Bit Sooner"

T2 - ABCT 57th Annual Convention

AU - Crasta, Dev

AU - Knopp, Kayla

AU - Britton, Peter

AU - Trillingsgaard, Tea

AU - Cordova, James

PY - 2023/11/18

Y1 - 2023/11/18

N2 - Romantic relationship quality shows strong associations with individual well-being and mental health. Furthermore, maintaining romantic relationship quality is often a valued domain of living. While couple therapies demonstrate efficacy in reducing relationship distress, their intensive formats create barriers to attendance for couples with limited time, financial resources, or access to childcare. As a result, treatments are underutilized, with many couples delaying treatment for several years after problems emerge or dropping out after only a handful of sessions. Furthermore, these barriers often fall along lines of class privilege, meaning that couples with the highest risk of problems are also least likely to benefit from services. An alternative model is to focus on relationship-health as a continuum of services rather than the domain of a handful of specialists. Taking a systems view can expand the potential range of solutions that can be offered help a larger share of couples find fulfilling relationships. Furthermore, since these systems-level challenges can also be felt by individual clinicians (as challenging cases and high dropout rates), it means this change can reduce the burden on any one clinician. The symposium addresses this potential with four presentations united by the theme of broadening our focus beyond intensive couple therapy clinics to identify opportunities to increase service utilization at a systems level.

AB - Romantic relationship quality shows strong associations with individual well-being and mental health. Furthermore, maintaining romantic relationship quality is often a valued domain of living. While couple therapies demonstrate efficacy in reducing relationship distress, their intensive formats create barriers to attendance for couples with limited time, financial resources, or access to childcare. As a result, treatments are underutilized, with many couples delaying treatment for several years after problems emerge or dropping out after only a handful of sessions. Furthermore, these barriers often fall along lines of class privilege, meaning that couples with the highest risk of problems are also least likely to benefit from services. An alternative model is to focus on relationship-health as a continuum of services rather than the domain of a handful of specialists. Taking a systems view can expand the potential range of solutions that can be offered help a larger share of couples find fulfilling relationships. Furthermore, since these systems-level challenges can also be felt by individual clinicians (as challenging cases and high dropout rates), it means this change can reduce the burden on any one clinician. The symposium addresses this potential with four presentations united by the theme of broadening our focus beyond intensive couple therapy clinics to identify opportunities to increase service utilization at a systems level.

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

Y2 - 16 November 2023 through 19 November 2023

ER -