Effects of self-help mindfulness-based psychoeducational program for caregiver wellbeing of disabled elderly
In recent years, the number of informal caregivers provided unpaid support for disabled dependent elderly at home has increased and is likely to continue to increase due to aging of the Malaysian population. The provision of this support, however, comes at a cost to the caregivers’ health and wel...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/90553/1/IPPM%202020%203%20IR.pdf |
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| Summary: | In recent years, the number of informal caregivers provided unpaid support for
disabled dependent elderly at home has increased and is likely to continue to
increase due to aging of the Malaysian population. The provision of this
support, however, comes at a cost to the caregivers’ health and wellbeing.
Efforts have been made to alleviate these consequences through various forms
of psycho-educational programs aimed to enable the caregivers to meet these
demands. The reported success of these psycho-educational programs is
varied in regards to their effectiveness; an argument supported by literature
review papers on the subject that questions the methodologies and evaluations
of these programs. There is a need to explore the ways to decrease caregivers’
perceived stress and to promote positive reappraisal outcomes like
mindfulness, self-compassion and satisfaction with life of informal caregivers by
means of a robust design and evaluation. This thesis reports a study, the aim
of which is to provide information about how to reduce the negative effects of
the carer role whilst enhancing the positive effects using a self-help
mindfulness-based psycho-educational program developed using lived
experience. The self-help mindfulness-based psycho-educational program was
developed and piloted with those caring for a disabled dependent elderly. This
was achieved in three stages: (i) qualitative interviews with caregivers to
explore and understand the role, (ii) developing the intervention program
informed by qualitative findings, and finally by (iii) randomized evaluation of the
intervention program. Effectiveness of the intervention program was
determined using positive reappraisal outcomes like mindfulness, self compassion
and satisfaction with life, the results of which were compared to a
control group who did not take part in the intervention program. The results
indicated that self-compassion, satisfaction with life and mindfulness
significantly higher following the mindfulness-based psycho- education training
program as an intervention for the treatment group compared to the control
group. There was also significant difference between the groups in caregiver role strain. This study demonstrates that a mindfulness-based psychoeducation
training program may be a viable option to facilitate caregivers’ wellbeing.
This mindfulness-based psycho-education training program requires
less financial and time resources compared to other typical stress reduction
programs and is potentially more agreeable to caregivers’ schedules. This
study recommended that the future research should include an active control
condition and explore whether similar findings can be extended to clinical
populations. The training effects were also persistent after three months from
the last intervention session. In contributing to existing research, the use of
hermeneutic phenomenology provided new insight in to the experiences of
those providing care. The outcome of the intervention pilot shows positive
potential for the use of interventions beyond psychoeducation alone and the
use of a self-care approach. |
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