A Guided Online ACT Intervention Combined With Psychoeducation for People With Spinal Cord Injury

A Guided Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Intervention Combined With Psychoeducation for People With Spinal Cord Injury: A Preliminary Study

The purpose of this preliminary study is to examine the effects of a guided online acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) intervention combined with psychoeducation on people with spinal cord injury (SCI) who experience psychological distress.

This project will employ a one-group pretest-posttest design to investigate the effects of a guided online acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) intervention combined with psychoeducation on quality of life and mental health of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) who experience psychological distress. After the pretest evaluation, eligible participants will receive 8 weekly sessions, including 6 ACT sessions and 2 psychoeducation sessions, delivered by trained coaches through Zoom videoconferencing. Each session lasts for one hour. Primary outcome measures will be psychological distress measured by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS)- 21 and Spinal Cord Injury - Quality of Life (SCI-QOL). A one-time interview at the completion of the 8 sessions will be conducted to explore participants' experiences in the sessions.

Inclusion Criteria:

• community-dwelling adults (age 18 or over) living in the community who had a spinal cord injury
• suffering at least mild symptoms of psychological distress measured by the DASS-21
• having a computer/smartphone with internet access capable of doing web browsing and video-conferencing
• being able to provide informed consent by understanding the nature of study participation.

Exclusion Criteria:

• having cognitive, physical, or sensory deficits, or language barriers (non- English communicator) that impede study participation
• receiving a psychological therapy currently
• having psychiatric hospitalizations or diagnoses of mental illness in the previous 2 years
• taking antipsychotic or anticonvulsant medication at the time of recruitment
• having the possibility of study dropouts due to other medical conditions