127P
Pilot Testing an Intervention to Increase SMI Caregiver Resilience
Providing care to a family member experiencing a serious mental illness (SMI) is particularly stressful and burdensome when this responsibility persists over many years. Although these families generally do not need help understanding or managing the illness, they need help in maintaining resilience in the face of destabilizing events. Existing psychoeducational interventions for these caregivers do not address the emotional toll and disequilibrium these family members experience due to their ongoing caregiving responsibilities. Folkman’s revised Stress Process Model states that activities appraised as stressful can be adaptive or maladaptive. Coping mechanisms can be either problem-focused or emotion-focused, and a positive resolution to an event is associated with positive emotional outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the feasibility of administering The Banking Positives intervention that promotes cognitive and emotional resilience in these caregivers.
Method
As a pilot study, a one group pretest-posttest design was used to provide initial data demonstrating the feasibility of recruiting subjects, and administering the intervention, as well as suggesting the intervention’s efficacy with family members in long-term caregiving relationships with SMI clients. The seven-session intervention, delivered in a group format, used a strength-based model to help family members focus on the positive aspects of their caregiving relationships. Using a banking metaphor, the intervention taught them to maintain an emotional reserve that could be tapped when they were feeling burdened by caregiving activities. The treatment evaluations used paired t-tests and Cohen’s d tests to examine the effects of the intervention on the outcome variables (family functioning, emotional well-being, and caregiver burden/stress). A convenience sample of 10 participants was recruited from a local National Alliance for the Mentally Ill chapter.
Results
Significant improvement, as indicated by the paired t-tests and Cohen’s dresults, was noted in emotional well-being, caregiver burden/stress, and life satisfaction. However, as the sample was so small, these findings are very tentative. More importantly to the researchers, the feasibility of recruiting a sample and administering the intervention were successful.
Conclusions and Implications
Initial data suggest that this intervention can be useful for bolstering the emotional resilience of family caregivers to SMI clients. If additional data support these initial findings, we may be able to provide an important resource that allows this hidden population to sustain their caregiving efforts and improve the quality-of-life for both them and their care recipients. (An additional pilot study is being done with the VA to determine the feasibility of delivering the intervention to caregivers of traumatic brain injured and PTSD populations.)