BACKGROUND/AIMS
The Take Charge intervention, a talking therapy delivered by a trained facilitator, has been shown to significantly improve quality of life, independence, and social participation up to one year after stroke.1,2 While it has been adopted into clinical practice at many centres worldwide and hundred of facilitators have been trained, it is difficult to monitor whether Take Charge is being delivered in the way it was intended, to ensure that it is maximally effective.
METHODS
Embedded within the Taking Charge by Telehealth Feasibility Study (TeleTaCAS), we developed an intervention fidelity checklist to allow independent assessment of how Take Charge is being delivered. TeleTaCAS is a randomised controlled trial assessing feasibility and acceptability of Take Charge delivered by Zoom or telephone. Participants consented to their sessions being recorded and reviewed as part of this substudy. We drew on the expertise of the Take Charge developers and the training manual, and reviewed recorded sessions to determine the key components of Take Charge that are essential to fidelity of delivery.
RESULTS
We will present the content of the Take Charge fidelity checklist, with a pre-defined fidelity threshold.
CONCLUSION
The Take Charge fidelity checklist will serve to assist researchers who wish to study Take Charge in other patient populations in maintaining intervention fidelity. The checklist will also allow facilitators of Take Charge within clinical practice to assess their intervention fidelity. However, it is essential that completing the components of the Take Charge intervention does not itself become a checkbox exercise.