Agoraphobia: an outreach treatment programme.

BACKGROUND

Agoraphobia is disabling and clients find it hard to access effective treatment.

AIMS: This paper describes the development of an inexpensive service, delivered by trained volunteers in or near the client's own home.

METHOD: We describe the development of the service, including selection, training and supervision. Outcomes were evaluated over 5 years, and compared with those available from the local psychology service.

RESULTS

Effect sizes on all measures were high. Benchmarking indicated that results on comparable measures were not significantly different from the local psychology service. As in many previous studies drop-out rate was fairly high.

CONCLUSIONS

This model worked well, and was inexpensive and effective. Further research on long term outcome and methods of enhancing engagement is needed.