Psychological factors influencing the effectiveness of remote support for self-management of chronic dizziness Seminar

Chronic dizziness is a common symptom, and is believed to affect up to 25% of the community. Suffering from chronic dizziness can be debilitating and lead to loss of independence, reduced fitness, falls and fear of falling. Vestibular Rehabilitation (VR) is now the recommended treatment for dizziness, and research has shown that VR can be delivered using a self-treatment booklet. The programme of research conducted for my PhD examined psychological factors influencing the effectiveness of telephone support for self-managing dizziness using booklet-based VR.

In this talk I will present four empirical studies examining factors relevant to telephone support. These include a meta-analysis of telephone delivered therapy for improving physical health outcomes in chronic illness, a qualitative study of patient experiences using booklet-based VR with or without telephone support and a mixed methods study examining the development of the therapeutic relationship during brief telephone support for patients with chronic dizziness.