The goal of this study was to identify characteristics of caregivers that contribute to differences in psychological distress and physical health in family caregivers to elderly relatives. It was hypothesized that hardiness would predict caregiver's distress and physical health beyond what could be accounted for by the demands of caregiving (relative's cognitive impairment and functional/behavioral impairment, and caregiver's level of responsibility for needed care); that hardiness would decrease distress and increase physical health; and that the effect of hardiness would be mediated by appraisals of caregiving. In a sample of 53 caregivers to relatives age 65 or older, results indicated that both hardiness and appraisals predicted psychological distress (depression and life satisfaction). Neither predicted physical health. Appraisals partially explained the relationship between hardiness and psychological distress, but it appears that both general personality characteristics and situation-specific perceptions determine the impact on the caregiver.
Over the past 2 decades, a growing emphasis on providing inpatients in state psychiatric hospitals with psychosocial treatment has been driven in part by several court decisions and federal investigations. Hospitals, chronically understaffed and underfunded, have tended to rely on the group treatment modality as their primary method for providing this treatment. Psychologists working in state psychiatric hospitals face the challenge of trying to implement evidence-based group treatments in an inpatient setting as part of rapid hospital efforts to increase hours of psychosocial treatments provided to each patient. However, there is limited information available to practitioners on whether and what kinds of group treatment are most effective for this population, as well as limited research on how to adapt the evidence-based treatment programs we know to be effective in outpatient populations for the inpatient setting. We surveyed psychology directors and psychologist group therapists in state psychiatric inpatient facilities to assess whether they endorsed using evidence-based group treatment practices; what modifications, if any, they needed to make for these practices to be relevant and useful to their population; and what factors supported or hindered the provision of evidence-based practices. Psychology directors considered the large majority of groups provided by their staff as based on evidence-based practices and identified methods to support and monitor the quality of group provision. Group therapists identified ways they needed to adapt group protocols to fit the needs of their clients and identified areas of support and challenges in providing group treatments.Keywords: severe mental illness, group treatment, state hospitals, evidence-based practice, inpatient treatment What do you do when your inpatient psychiatric hospital administration tries to rapidly implement 20 hrs of group treatment per week per patient, and you are called on to provide an array of offerings drawing on best practices and evidence-based treatments? This was the situation in the North Carolina state psychiatric hospitals in 2003. Those of us working in that system had to figure out how to apply and adapt evidence-based group therapy approaches developed in different settings and with different populations to the inpatient public mental health setting. An inevitable tension arises between treatment fidelity and adaptation to current needs and new populations, as well as between the need for rapid implementation of hospital-wide programming versus the desire for thoughtful development and therapist training. Curious about how others might have approached this dilemma, we surveyed psychology directors and psychology group therapists across state hospitals to identify common themes regarding provision and adaptations of group treatments based on evidence-based practices, what supports are available, and what challenges or obstacles are experienced in providing group therapy. It is our hope that this will lead to recommendations for hos...
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