Designing Research to Meet Service Needs: An Evaluation of Single-Session Groups for Families of Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social group work intervention for families of psychiatric inpatients, with the goal of enhancing coping, social support, and information. The sample consisted of 55 clients who participated in the groups during a 3-month period and completed pre- and posttest measures designed for this project. Outcome measures focused on family members' perceptions in three different domains: the amount of information they had regarding their family member's illness and selected aspects of treatment, their ability to cope with their family member's illness and hospitalization, and the amount of support both from the group and outside the hospital setting. Student t tests were used to examine the change in scores from respondents' initial response before the group session to their scores immediately following the intervention. Results indicate that the groups were effective overall in these three areas.

Steps in Intervention Research: Designing and Developing Social Programs

“…Since 1994, we have been engaged in designing and developing universal and selective prevention programs to address antisocial, aggressive behavior in childhood. This work extends our previous intervention research (e.g., Fraser, Walton, Lewis, Pecora, & Walton, 1996;Rounds, Galinsky, & Despard, 1995;Turnbull, Galinsky, Wilner, & Meglin, 1994), but it is more focused on children's social skills and peer relationships. We identified these focus areas as potentially malleable mediators of the relationship between early aggressive behavior in childhood and poor developmental outcomes in adolescence (Fraser, 1996a(Fraser, , 1996b.…”

A Toolkit for Single-Session Groups in Acute Care Settings

“…The second recruitment type involves direct/active methods. These include verbal invitation to all patients/families upon admission (Block, 1985;Feigin et al, 1998), keeping a list of potential members and visiting them (Ebenstein, 1998;Feigin et al, 1998;Weisberg, 1987), scanning wards right before sessions (Ebenstein, 1998), targeted phone-calls (Feigin et al, 1998), and referrals from unit staff (Turnbull et al, 1994;Weisberg, 1987). A multitude of these methods were used by each study, and they should be revised and adapted on an ongoing basis.…”

“…The literature raises the need for some planning and discussion to occur around the structure and content of the sessions (Block, 1985;Hamlet & Read, 1990;Turnbull, 1994): Will there be a mix of didactic and self-directed components? How much of the session should be dedicated to each?…”

“…This meeting may include discussing the group process, perceptions of group members, and areas for improvement. Group evaluation and outcomes may take place with members through short qualitative and/or quantitative surveys at the end of every session (Feigin et al, 1998;Turnbull et al, 1994;Hamlet & Read, 1990). It may also include longer-term phone calls up to 8 months after a session (Feigin et al, 1998).…”

“…They have been used to serve various populations in hospital settings. Several examples include cancer patients (Aronwitz, Brunswick, & Kaplan, 1983), psychiatric inpatients (Turnbull, Galinsky, Wilner, & Meglin, 1994), and families of liver transplant patients (Ebenstein, 1998).…”