Data collection
depression, anxiety
The study took place in England, UK. The EQUITy intervention was delivered to each of the three NHS IAPT services independently between November 2020 and January 2021. Data collection took place post-intervention between February and April 2021.All participants provided informed consent prior to taking part in the study. All interviews/focus group were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim by an independent company approved by the University of Manchester. Any identifiable information was removed from the transcripts to protect participants’ anonymity and data were securely stored.Fifteen stakeholder informants across the three NHS services took part in the study (i.e., six patients, five practitioners, and four service leads). All six patient participants had received two or more sessions of guided-self-help by telephone from a practitioner who had received the EQUITy telephone skills training. All patient participants were females, aged between 20 to 57 years old (M=35.33, SD=15.67), five self-described as White and one as Asian, four were employed full-time, one was not employed due to health issues, and one was retired. Three patient participants were receiving treatment for anxiety and depression and the rest for depression only. Three had completed telephone treatment at the time of the interview and the other three were still in treatment.The professional participants included five practitioners with varying degrees of experience from trainees to senior practitioners with supervisory responsibilities, and four service leads. Eight out of the nine professionals were female, all were White British, aged between 24 and 59 years old (M=36.44, SD=11.46). The professionals’ experience within mental health ranged from more than one year up to 20 years.All participants were interviewed and two service leads from one NHS IAPT service participated in a focus group. A focus group was particularly pertinent as they were undergoing a service restructure at the time, enabling a more meaningful and fuller discussion about service implementation . The interviews and the focus group were conducted by telephone and lasted between 40 and 69 minutes.