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. 2018 Mar 27;18(1):84.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-018-1669-z.

Evaluation of an interaction-skills training for reducing the burden of family caregivers of patients with severe mental illness: a pre-posttest design

Yasmin Gharavi  1 , Barbara Stringer  2   3 , Adriaan Hoogendoorn  4 , Jan Boogaarts  3 , Bas Van Raaij  3 , Berno Van Meijel  5   6   7   8
Affiliations

Evaluation of an interaction-skills training for reducing the burden of family caregivers of patients with severe mental illness: a pre-posttest design

Yasmin Gharavi et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Family members who care for patients with severe mental illness experience emotional distress and report a higher incidence of mental illness than those in the general population. They report feeling inadequately prepared to provide the necessary practical and emotional support for these patients. The MAT training, an Interaction-Skills Training program (IST) for caregivers, was developed to meet those needs. This study used a single-arm pretest-posttest design to examine the impact of the training on caregivers' sense of competence (self-efficacy) and burden.

Methods: One hundred family caregivers recruited from three mental health institutions participated in the training. Burden was assessed using the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire, and self-efficacy using the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to investigate whether participation in the training changed the level of family caregivers' burden and self-efficacy. Pearson's correlation was used to examine the relationships between self-efficacy and burden.

Results: Our results indicate that, after the training, self-efficacy increased significantly over time (p < 0.001) and that burden decreased significantly (p < 0.001). However, the results could not demonstrate the expected association between an increase of self-efficacy and decrease of burden. Caregivers expressed high appreciation for the training.

Conclusions: After following the IST program, family caregivers of patients with severe mental illness experienced a greater sense of competence and a significant decrease in burden. The training was greatly appreciated and satisfied caregivers' need to acquire the skills required in complex caregiving situations.

Trial registration: This study was retrospectively registered (14/01/2018) in the ISRCTN registry with study ID ISRCTN44495131 .

Keywords: Burden; Family caregivers; IST; Interaction-skills training; Psycho-education; Self-efficacy; Severe mental disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Under Dutch law, no medical ethical approval was needed for our study, see CCMO [24]. According to the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO), research falls under the scope of the WMO if:

  1. It concerns medical-scientific research and;

  2. Participants are subject to procedures or are required to follow rules of behavior.

Our study does not concern medical-scientific research, since it is an evaluation study among family members (non-patients) following a training program that is offered as care as usual in several Dutch mental health institutions over the past years.

This was confirmed by the Pro Persona Research Department (February 2016).

After receiving verbal and written information on the study, all participants / family members signed for informed consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Illustration of the mat
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Illustration of the changes in burden and self-efficacy over time. Error bars indicate 95% confidence confidence intervals of the mean
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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