Our featured service for October is the THIS WAY UP Insomnia program, an online treatment course for people managing chronic sleep difficulties.
About THIS WAY UP
THIS WAY UP is a trusted Australian provider of evidence-based internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (iCBT) psychological treatment programs and wellbeing programs. Their aim is to reduce the burden of mental illness by providing accessible, online treatment for anxiety disorders and related mental health conditions.
Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, THIS WAY UP is run out of St. Vincent’s Hospital. It has been acknowledged as Head to Health information partner site, and approved by the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards.
In addition to their suite of online treatment programs, THIS WAY UP offers free online coping tools teaching practical ways to protect individuals mental health, and a Clinician Hub where health practitioners can prescribe course, monitor progress and access clinician resources to use in their practice.
About the Insomnia Program
The THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program is an accredited program with the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards, teaching effective, step-by-step strategies for managing chronic sleep difficulties.
The program is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and teaches strategies over four lessons to improve users sleep and make positive changes in how they feel. Each lesson focuses on a different practical skill to change the cycle of insomnia.
Lesson 1:
The science of sleep and insomnia – what keeps insomnia going and good sleep habits.
Lesson 2:
Managing sleep-interfering thoughts and behaviours – strategies to reduce arousal in bed and retraining the brain to associate bed with sleep.
Lesson 3:
Managing sleep-interfering thoughts and behaviours – strategies to improve sleep quality and techniques to manage thoughts that interfere with sleep.
Lesson 4:
Review skills and maintaining progress – balancing daytime stimulation with good sleep and reviewing program concepts and skills.
After completing each lesson, users are provided time to practice their new skills before moving on to the next lesson. THIS WAY UP aims to help people discover strategies to manage their own sleep which they can maintain following completion of the program.
What features does the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program offer?
The THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program includes a range of materials to support users to learn on their own including:
- Story-based lessons teaching core coping skills.
- Workbooks with exercises to help tackle symptoms.
- Step-by-step activities to put skills into practice.
- Extra tools and resources for common challenges.
- Reminder emails and text to keep users on track.
- Progress tracking questionnaires to monitor wellbeing.
Who is the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program for?
The THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program is suitable for people who:
- Have experienced increasing sleep difficulty over the last three months.
- Tend to have broken or restless sleep, or difficulty getting up in the morning.
- Feel tired even when getting enough hours of sleep.
How can Health Practitioners use the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program?
THIS WAY UP’s Clinician Portal allow health professionals to prescribe program to their patients and clients, and monitor their progress throughout. Health Professionals can access their prescribed patients wellbeing scores and current progress with the program, allowing for regular check ins and discussion on how they are finding the program.
Health professionals could choose to prescribe the program as a completely independent treatment, as it contains a full dose of disorder-specific CBT treatment. It could also be combined with other clinical interventions as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.
The program could be used to enhance telehealth or in-person sessions, provide support between sessions, or review skills and maintain treatment gains following completion of a treatment program.
Is there a cost to use the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program?
All of THIS WAY UP’s programs are free to access if prescribed by a clinician (eg. GP, Psychologist or other health professional).
For individuals enrolling in the program on their own the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program is free for 90 days, after which it will cost $59AUD.
How to access the THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program
The THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program is available online at https://thiswayup.org.au/programs/insomnia-program/.
Users can then decide to enrol in the program as a self-help or supervised program. To enrol as self-help users need to create a THIS WAY UP account with their given name, email address and a password.
To enrol in a supervised program, users need to be prescribed by a health professional. If the health professional is already familiar with THIS WAY UP they can simply log in to the clinical portal and prescribe the program. Users could also choose to print a clinician letter to bring to their appointment to guide the health professional through how to prescribe THIS WAY UP.
THIS WAY UP Research and Evaluation
The THIS WAY UP Insomnia Program is based on established clinical practice guidelines for mood and anxiety. It has been evaluated in randomised controlled trials and in studies in real world settings.
Read more about the studies and outcomes here:
- Self-guided online cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia: A naturalistic evaluation in patients with potential psychiatric comorbidities
- Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Co-occurring insomnia and anxiety: a randomized controlled trial of internet cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia versus internet cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety