Research so far on this course ...

We have conducted > 5 trials of this course

More than 3,000 participants have enrolled in this course

We have published > 6 studies evaluating this course

Chronic Conditions and Loneliness Course

Background

We have been developing a course, called the Chronic Conditions Course, for people with a broad range of different chronic health conditions over the last 10 years. We have developed the Course because we know that many people with chronic health conditions face significant challenges and difficulties in their day-to-day lives, which often affects their emotional wellbeing and quality of life.

More than 3,000 people have now completed the course and we have got great feedback about it. One common issue we've found is that many of our participants also struggle with feelings of loneliness, alongside their chronic health conditions and other things they are dealing with. This is particularly true for our older participants.

Given this, we now want to evaluate a new Chronic Conditions and Loneliness Course for adults aged (60+) who are dealing with the impacts of a chronic health condition, including changes in relationships and reduced social activities and connection.

Research shows that adults with chronic health conditions are at greater risk of poor emotional wellbeing - e.g., stress, anxiety, worry, low mood, sadness and depression. Furthermore, many people have limited access to help in managing the impact of their chronic health condition or their emotional wellbeing.

We developed the course with the hope of helping people to limit the impact their chronic health conditions have on their day-to-day lives and to maintain good emotional wellbeing and social connection, despite their health conditions.

To learn more about chronic health conditions, please click here.

What conditions have previous participants had?

Some common chronic conditions of our previous participants include:

Heart disease
Stroke
Chronic pain
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Parkinson's disease
Gastrointestinal diseases and conditions (e.g., Crohn's, Celiac, IBS)
Lymphoedema
Rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic conditions
Endometriosis
Epilepsy
Cancer
Diabetes
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Cystic fibrosis
Osteoarthritis and other skeletal conditions
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
And many, many more.

Who is the course suitable for?

The course is suitable for:

Adults aged 60 and older.
With a diagnosed chronic physical health condition
Who are experiencing feelings of loneliness or social isolation
Who want to learn information and skills to limit the impact of their condition and improve their emotional wellbeing.
Who have at least 4 hours per week to spend working on the Course and practicing the skills taught during the Course.

Unfortunately, we cannot include people who are currently suicidal, do not have access to the Internet or tablet or laptop device. We also strongly recommend people discuss their participation in this course with their GP and other doctors.

Maintaining a good working relationship with your doctors is essential when you have a chronic health condition and they can help you decide whether this program is going to be suitable for you.

What does the course involve?

The course involves:

5 online lessons that provide information and teach practical self-management skills.
DIY Guides to help understand and practice those skills.
Lots of Additional Resources and Case Stories and examples from others.
Briefly weekly support from a psychologist.

The course is delivered over 8 weeks and is designed to provide good information and teach practical skills for managing the impact of chronic health conditions, feelings of loneliness, and improving emotional wellbeing. The course is not designed to 'treat' or 'cure' chronic health conditions. However, the information and skills covered have been found in 100s of research trials to be essential for people with significant chronic health conditions.

The course aims to provide the information and skills that you would normally receive from a Clinical Psychologist, if you attended a specialist treatment facility. However, because many people cannot access these facilities, we are developing and testing this internet-delivered Course - our goal is to make it as helpful as possible and to make it freely and widely available.

What have we found so far?

We have now had a lot of people complete this course. Participants are reporting improvements in:

Day-to-day activity levels and abilities
Stress and anxiety
Low mood and depression

We are now researching how this course may also improve feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

In the previous versions of this course, more than 90% of participants are also reporting the course is worth their time and that they'd recommend it to others.

Some of the key papers we have published on this course are:

Dear BF, Scott AJ, Fogliati R, Gandy M, Karin E, Dudeney J, Nielssen O, McDonald S, Heriseanu AI, Bisby MA, Sharpe L, Jones MP, Ali S, Titov N. (2022) The Chronic Conditions Course: A randomised controlled trial of an internet-delivered trhansdiagnostic psychological intervention for people with chronic health conditions. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 91, 265-276.
Dear B, Fogliati V, Fogliati R, Gandy M, McDonald S, Talley N, Titov N, Jones M. (2018). Transdiagnostic internet-delivered cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) for adults with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID): a feasibility open trial. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 108, 61-69..
Gandy M, Karin E, Fogliati VJ, McDonald S, Titov N, Dear BF. (2016). A feasibility trial of an Internet-delivered and transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy treatment program for anxiety, depression, and disability among adults with epilepsy. Epilepsia, 57, 1887 – 96.
Mehta S, Hadjistavropoulos H, Nugent M, Karin E, Titov N, Dear BF. (2020). Guided internet-delivered cognitive-behaviour therapy for persons with spinal cord injury: a feasibility trial. Spinal Cord, 58, 544 – 52.

What is the current trial or study looking at?

Every time we offer a course we offer it as a part of a trial or study. This means that participants are helping us to answer an important research question while they participate in our courses.

The current trial of the Chronic Conditions and Loneliness Course is examining its effectiveness and helpfulness to people over 60 years old who have chronic health conditions and who are experiencing feelings of loneliness or social isolation.

You can read more about the current trial by reading the Participant Information and Consent Form Statement.

When is the next course being offered?

In Australia?

We are currently about to start taking applications for the next course for people living in Australia.

Our next two groups will be starting on

13th of October 2025
5th of January 2026

You will be randomly chosen to start in one of the two groups.

To apply to participate, please click “Apply Now!” below and follow the prompts.

We plan to run new courses every two to three months in 2026. If the dates for our next groups are not suitable for you, please check this webpage again in a couple of weeks - we'll be updating the dates of available groups regularly.

Not in Australia?

You might be interested in our standard Chronic Conditions Course, which is available internationally and you can read about here.

Apply Now

(if you are living outside of Australia)