Aims: The paper will present an overview of the fidelity approach in the BeatIt study and describe the characteristics of therapists and supervision, and the development of a measure to assess the “quality” of therapy delivery that is designed as a non-specific therapy process measure for structured and manualised therapies.

Methods: Therapist demographic and supervision data were collected. A nonspecific
therapy process measure was developed based on previously available fidelity measures.
Therapists in both arms recorded two therapy sessions that were rated by independent research
associates (144 fidelity recordings were available for analysis), 45 recordings were also rated by a
further research associate to determine inter-rater reliability.

Results: The data indicated that the therapists were predominantly nurses, had no accredited therapy training and received a mean of one supervision for every 1.8 therapy sessions. Therapist in both arms provided a high quality of therapy and closely followed the manuals. The scale had good internal reliability (alpha = 0.76). Further detailed data for the psychometric properties of the non-specific therapy process scale will be presented.

Conclusions: The fidelity data shows that the core protocol for the recruitment of therapists
and implementation of supervision was followed and therapists provided high quality of therapy that was consistent with the manuals. The non-specific therapy process measure will support the development of therapy process research for people with intellectual disabilities.