Friday, 14 January 2005 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Working with Families of Persons with Severe Mental Illness

“Psychoeducation Responsive To Families”: Twelve And Twenty-Four Month Outcomes Of A Randomized Clinical Effectiveness Trial For Families With An Adult Member With Mental Illness

Purpose: Translating intervention research into practice requires not only establishing effectiveness, but also attention to “real-world” implementation issues. Multifamily psychoeducation groups have been empirically validated in highly controlled clinical settings, but not in community settings where dissemination is based. Further, psychoeducation groups have generally been recruited for families whose member with the illness (FMI) share a single diagnosis (e.g., schizophrenia or bipolar disorder).

This presentation describes 12- and 24-month outcomes for “PsychoEducation Responsive to Families” (PERF), a year-long multi-family group model, conducted at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of St. Louis. Each PERF group determined its own unique curriculum, drawing resources from a standardized manual. Families were eligible regardless of the psychiatric diagnosis of their member with the illness (FMI).

Methods: Families were recruited from community workshops and randomly assigned to either PERF or a comparison condition consisting of a scripted family education program of similar intensity. Families were assessed at intake, 12-and 24-months for family burden/coping, knowledge/mastery, service use, quality of life, FMI medication compliance, and FMI social relationships. The study enrolled 189 families, 123 to PERF and 66 to the comparison condition including a scripted family intervention. This presentation will report baseline, 12-month, and 24-month follow-up data. T-tests and regression analyses were conducted (a) for all families randomized to the PERF condition, comparing intake versus 12- and 24-months and 12- versus 24-months, (b) between PERF and comparison conditions comparing intake versus 24-months, and (c) examining patterns of outcomes for PERF participants based on FMI diagnosis and relationship of group participant to FMI.

Results: PERF families demonstrated broad positive outcomes at 12-month follow-up and further incremental improvement at 24-months. Families also demonstrated decreased burden and increased coping relative to the comparison condition at 24-months. Families tended to benefit regardless of diagnosis of FMI. Parents of the FMI participating in PERF tended to show greater numbers of significant improvements than other relationships.

Discussion: Results indicated that the PERF intervention was successful in improving long-term outcomes for families and their FMI, and that long-term benefits were somewhat greater relative to the comparison condition. The findings clearly demonstrate the potential for PERF in “real world” settings. Community practitioners seeking to implement PERF can recruit participants regardless of the FMI psychiatric illness, but may wish to focus efforts on engaging parents in the group.

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