Objectives of the pilot study

Our primary objectives concern the assessment of the feasibility of implementing the IMR training program on a broader scale at Bavo Europoort. As a satisfactory power level would be achieved only if we included enough patients in the planned RCT—we planned 200—we examined whether the institute would succeed in recruiting sufficient participants for the six IMR groups planned. The institution’s willingness to implement IMR in the long term would depend largely on clients’ and clinicians’ satisfaction with IMR, on which the effectiveness of the program would clearly have a bearing.

Our secondary objectives regard the assessment of the quality with which IMR is implemented. Because fidelity is considered to be associated with better outcomes [20–23], secondary objectives were to evaluate whether it was feasible to apply the 11 modules of IMR with satisfactory fidelity in the Dutch context and to set up an adequate infrastructure for trainers’ training and supervision, which is a precondition for implementing IMR with good fidelity. Further secondary objectives for the pilot study were to explore the duration of the program and dropout from it. The dropout percentage would give an indication of the number of completers of the intervention that could be expected in the main study. We also wanted to explore client characteristics related to dropout.