The paper of Wilson et al. 2017, has been selected as publication of the month. The paper describes their systematic review on psychosocial interventions targeted at reducing grief symptoms among family caregivers of people with dementia. It shows how important it is to implement psychosocial interventions for caregivers when the person with dementia is still alive in order to prevent caregivers\u2019 complicated grief. In fact, it seems that a combination of cognitive skills training and behavioral oriented interventions to improve the well-being of the carer and care recipient is effective in supporting the family caregivers once the person with dementia has passed away.<\/p>\n
JBI Database System Rev Implement Rep. 2017 Mar;15(3):809-839. doi: 10.11124\/JBISRIR-2016-003017.<\/em><\/strong> Abstract<\/strong><\/em> The paper of Wilson et al. 2017, has been selected as publication of the month. The paper describes their systematic review on psychosocial interventions targeted at reducing grief symptoms among […] ","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6223,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions\/6223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interdem.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEffectiveness of psychosocial interventions in reducing grief experienced by family carers of people with dementia: a systematic review. Wilson S, Toye C, Aoun S, Slatyer S, Moyle W, Beattie E.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nOBJECTIVE<\/em>:
\nTo synthesize the existing evidence regarding the impact of psychosocial interventions to assist adjustment to grief, pre- and post-bereavement, for family carers of people with dementia.
\nINCLUSION CRITERIA TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS<\/em>:
\nFamily carers of older persons with dementia (>65 years).
\nTYPES OF INTERVENTIONS<\/em>:
\nPsychosocial interventions in health and social care facilities, and community settings designed to assist family carers adjust to grief during the dementia trajectory and\/or following death.
\nCOMPARISONS<\/em>:
\nNo treatment, standard care or treatment as usual, or an alternative intervention.
\nTYPES OF STUDIES<\/em>:
\nExperimental and epidemiological study designs.
\nOUTCOMES<\/em>:
\nGrief in family carers including anticipatory, complicated and prolonged grief disorder measured with validated instruments.
\nSEARCH STRATEGY<\/em>:
\nA three-step strategy sought to identify both published and unpublished studies from 1995.
\nMETHODOLOGICAL QUALITY<\/em>:
\nAssessed by two independent reviewers using standardized critical appraisal tools from the Joanna Briggs Institute Meta Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI).
\nDATA EXTRACTION<\/em>:
\nThe standardized data extraction tool from JBI-MAStARI was used by two reviewers independently.
\nDATA SYNTHESIS<\/em>:
\nStatistical pooling of results was not possible due to the heterogeneity of the interventions and the outcome measures.
\nRESULTS<\/em>:
\nData were extracted from three studies. Study designs were a randomized controlled trial; a pre-test, multiple post-test quasi-experimental; and a single group, repeated measures. The interventions were multi-component, had durations of nine to 26 weeks and were delivered while care recipients were alive. All studies were undertaken in the United States. There were 327 family carers, of which 197 received a psychosocial intervention. Family carers were predominantly female (84.7%), Caucasian (73.4%) and caring for their spouse (44.3%). All care recipients had dementia; 68.5% had Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Two studies measured anticipatory grief, and the third study reported normal and complicated grief.Moderate benefits to anticipatory grief were evident upon completion of the \u201cEasing the Way\u201d intervention (effect size -0.43, P = 0.03). After controlling for research design and control variables, for every hour increase in the interventions focusing on family carers\u2019 cognitive skills, there were associated decreases in carers\u2019 normal grief (parameter estimate [PE] = -0.81, P = 0.02) and complicated grief (PE = -0.87, P = 0.03). For every hour increase in the interventions focusing on carer behavior, there was an associated decrease in carers\u2019 complicated grief (PE = -1.32, P = 0.04). For every hour increase in the interventions focusing on care recipient behavior, there was an associated decrease in carers\u2019 complicated grief (PE = -2.91, P = 0.04).
\nCONCLUSION<\/em>:
\nThere is little evidence upon which to base practice with regard to interventions to reduce any aspects of grief. Findings suggest that different pre-death interventions might be warranted depending upon a family carer\u2019s unique clinical presentation and combination of risk factors.Cognitive skills training provided while the care recipient is alive may positively impact normal and complicated grief following the death of the care recipient. When the cognitive skills training is provided in conjunction with behaviorally oriented interventions that improve the wellbeing of the carer and care recipient, carers\u2019 complicated grief symptoms may be reduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"