Treatment of personality disorders using a whole of service guidelines-based approach

Active intervention is a whole of service guidelines-based treatment, derived from a relationship model, and will be compared to treatment as usual (TAU). The approach emphasises good clinical care grounded in developed treatment guidelines (Project Air Strategy for Personality Disorders 2011) derived from the NICE (2009) and Gunderson and Links Clinical Guide for treating people with Personality Disorders (2008). Treatment is a stepped care approach, including specialised individual, group and family interventions delivered by mental health professionals trained in the model, for up to 12 months. Service sections are randomly divided into practice sites receiving the intervention or treatment as usual. After a 12-month delay, planning and implementation for the TAU site will commence. The study has two aims: (1) to assess the impact of the implementation compared to TAU on a service level, using hospital records (primary outcome), and (2) to assess the impact of the implementation on patient outcomes and therapist knowledge and attitudes (secondary outcomes).