Patients in this study enjoyed the process of taking photos to help tell their story, and they were able to capture meaningful images that communicated their lived experience of dealing with a mental illness.
This protocol proved helpful in the acceptance of the diagnosis and improved adherence to the treatment recommendations after disclosure of the diagnosis.
Brief, recurrent, reactive, or situational depression is a common and costly comorbidity that affects chronically ill patients and their family members. This article describes a program that teaches those individuals how to monitor and cope with symptoms of depression by writing daily in a journal. Twenty patients and family members attended teaching sessions at which videotaped scenes of other patients managing symptoms of depression were shown. After viewing the six scenes, participants wrote about their reactions to each scene and listed the emotions they had experienced that were similar to those shown in the tape. They were then asked to record daily for 4 months their emotions and reactions to situations and to also daily self-rate their levels of energy. They were also provided with a list of recommended activities in which to engage when they were depressed. Two psychiatric nurses evaluated the writings and concluded that the program was influential in helping patients and families overcome many emotionally draining reactions to adverse circumstances.
Patients receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN), a life-sustaining intravenous (IV) infusion that provides nourishment and hydration to patients with short gut or inflammatory bowel diseases, are often isolated and not in visual contact with peers or health providers. One completed clinical trial (Clinical Trials.gov NCT0190028) and 1 ongoing clinical trial (Clinical Trials.gov NCT02987569) are evaluating a mobile videoconferencing-delivered support group intervention for patients on HPN and their caregivers. This home-based telemedicine intervention uses encrypted tablet-based videoconferencing to connect multiple families in real time. The twice-daily IV regimen is challenging for patients who may experience infusion catheter-related bloodstream infections, difficulties with fatigue, loss of sleep, depressive disorders, and worry over the potential life-threatening side effects and the expenses of this therapy. Using secure telemedicine, the facilitated support group intervention aims to enhance HPN home care, daily functioning, and quality of life. The authors provide the rationale for the telemedicine approach with HPN users and caregivers. They provide "how-to" information about the content and process of the facilitated support group sessions via secure videoconferencing. They share lessons learned from the ongoing evaluation of the telemedicine approach.
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