The Behavioural Insights Team Working Paper Series - A randomised controlled trial to

The authors conclude that the lack of contact or information from the services about the wait was a factor contributing to nonattendance, as well as the length of the wait itself. [...] We designed a series of nine text messages to be sent to patients between referral to an IAPT service and the date of the second appointment being set. [...] In line with the literature outlined above, the text messages were designed to provide regular contact to patients as they waited at various stages in the process, and to reassure patients of the effort being exerted to arrange their appointment. [...] As the control group received fewer messages than the treatment group, it is possible that the effect of the messages was driven by the increased number of messages. [...] As noted in the results section above, one of the seven services was removed altogether from the analysis as the patients in the control group were inadvertently also sent the intervention text messages.