Enhancing Post-injury Psychological Intervention and Care (EPPIC) study

The Enhancing Post-injury Psychological Intervention and Care (EPPIC) study is a collaborative research project involving NHS patients, practitioners, health researchers, creative artists (drama and film) aiming to improve the management of injured adults’ psychological needs. EPPIC was funded by an NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship awarded to Kate Beckett and uses forum theatre to mobilise diverse knowledge about the psychological impact of injury.

EPPIC is committed to improving the management of post-injury psychological disorders (e.g., PTSD, depression, and anxiety) – these affect more than 30% of hospitalised injured adults and have a significant impact on recovery outcomes.

This webpage provides links to a range of EPPIC resources aimed at furthering this work.

The EPPIC training tool is a resource aimed at clinical trainees and NHS practitioners, best used as a facilitated group exercise, but also suitable for individual reflection or continuing professional development (CPD). The tool has 2 sections:

Section 1 explores EPPIC’s methods and explains how to use the tool.

Section 2 is a play, depicting eight stages in a fictional patient’s recovery journey and passage though NHS care. The play ‘Altered States’ was drawn from multiple interviews, focus-groups and research and uses direct quotes to simultaneously illustrate patient and practitioner experiences, constraints on NHS care and an ideal model based on evidence from research. You are invited to pause after each stage and consider where your sympathies lie, what the patient needs, what gets in the way and how to get closer to an evidence-based model of psychological care.

Additional resources: Please use the links below to help you use this tool and optimise interaction and learning.

Video links to separate sections: We recommend using the whole training tool at one time. This helps you to understand EPPIC's methods, the whole patient journey and explore how, where, and why current practice diverges from the research evidence and contributes to poorer outcomes. However, if you want to work on a particular setting or stage, you can follow the links to separate sections and stages below.

Note: The play depicts a bicycle accident and is quite powerful and real. If you are affected by it, please access the sources of support list below.

EPPIC uses forum theatre to mobilise diverse evidence about the psychological impact of injury. The film and diagram below explain how forum theatre and EPPIC's methods work.

View the diagram summarising EPPIC's methods (PDF) 

EPPIC's methods are based on pre-existing research and Knowledge Mobilisation approaches you can find out more by following these links. An EPPIC paper and book chapter are in print and will be added soon.

This work is evolving; we value any feedback, questions, or comments. Please get in touch with us by email: EPPIC@uwe.ac.uk.