Can Senior Volunteers Deliver Reminiscence and Creative Activity Interventions? Results of the Legacy Intervention Family Enactment Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Context Palliative care patients and their family caregivers may have a foreshortened perspective of time left to live, or the expectation of the patient’s death in the near future. Patients and caregivers may report distress in physical, psychological, or existential/spiritual realms. Objectives To conduct a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of retired senior volunteers (RSVs) in delivering a reminiscence and creative activity intervention aimed at alleviating palliative care patient and caregiver distress. Methods Of the 45 dyads that completed baseline, 28 completed post-intervention and 24 completed follow-up. The intervention group received three home visits by RSVs; control group families received three supportive telephone calls by research staff. Measures included symptom assessment and associated burden, depression, religiousness/spirituality, and meaning in life. Results Patients in the intervention group reported a significantly greater reduction in frequency of emotional symptoms (P = 0.02) and emotional symptom bother (P = 0.04) than the control group, as well as improved spiritual functioning. Family caregivers in the intervention group were more likely than control caregivers to endorse items on the Meaning in Life Scale (P = 0.02). Only improvement in intervention patients’ emotional symptom bother maintained at follow-up after discontinuing RSV contact (P = 0.024). Conclusion Delivery of the intervention by RSVs had a positive impact on palliative care patients’ emotional symptoms and burden and caregivers’ meaning in life. Meaningful prolonged engagement with palliative care patients and caregivers, possibly through alternative modes of treatment delivery such as continued RSV contact, may be necessary for maintenance of therapeutic effects.

Are the MORECare guidelines on reporting of attrition in palliative care research populations appropriate? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

“…Vague phrases such as withdrawn do not inform the reader as it is still unclear what the the reasons for the withdrawal were, for example was it due to progression of the illness or side effects of a drug or another reason? Dumville et al (2006) recommend reporting the causes of attrition clearly to help understand the findings of a study [161] and applying the MORECare classifications gives an indication of not only what has happened in a trial but also the characteristics of the population involved. Our review emphasises the need to identify primary outcome measures which should be measured sooner than later given the large amount of missing data in longer studies.…”

Biography work in in long-term residential aged care with tablet support to improve the quality of life and communication – study protocol for app development and evaluation / Biografiearbeit in Senioreneinrichtungen mit Tablet-Unterstützung zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität und Kommunikation (BaSeTaLK) – Studienprotokoll zur App-Entwicklung und Evaluation

“…In accordance with Allen et al (2014), we use the following inclusion criteria to select volunteers. Persons must have at least an intermediate level of education and sufficient German language skills; they also must be mobile and participate in the 1-day workshop to be included.…”

“…In a feasibility study, volunteers could adequately carry out systematic reminiscence work in people with dementia (Van Boegart et al, 2016). Furthermore, older volunteers were able to carry out systematic reminiscence work in palliative institutions with comparable success as trained persons (Allen et al, 2014). The volunteers experienced added value with an increasing sense of meaning and increased self-confidence (Allen et al, 2016).…”

“…In a major survey, Anderson et al (2014) conclude that older volunteers have greater social participation and better physical and cognitive health, with lower depression, dementia, and mortality rates. Technical support systems are again recommended to support volunteers in the implementation of biographical work (Allen et al, 2014). Using volunteer's potential can thus make a meaningful contribution to linking biographical work and digitization.…”

Conceptualising psychological distress in families in palliative care: Findings from a systematic review

“…Studies which included family outcomes during the bereavement period. Full-text arƟcles Included (n=32) [10,11,30,43, Full-text arƟcles excluded (n=6) [48][49][50][51][52][53] proposed narrative synthesis and the proposed tiered model of distress against the primary data.…”