Many adults with serious mental illness (SMI) depend heavily upon aging parents for long-term assistance. Such continuing dependency is often a source of stress and burden for these parents, and may lead them to experience problems with their own emotional well-being and life satisfaction. This proposed pilot study will test a brief (10 session), multi-dimensional problem solving intervention whose goal is to improve the emotional well-being and the life satisfaction of aging parental caregivers of adult children with schizophrenia. The intervention will be delivered in the participants' homes by masters' level social workers using a delayed experimental control design. The intervention protocol will employ a skill building, problem solving intervention model to address identified problems associated with the caregivers' emotional well- being, management of their children's problem behaviors, and concerns associated with planning for their children's future needs. Participation in this study will be limited to aging parental caregivers (60 years of age or older) of adult children (21 years of age or older) diagnosed with schizophrenia. To be eligible for the study, potential participants must exhibit measured decrements in emotional well-being and life satisfaction, and a moderate or higher measured level of caregiver burden. Recruitment of study participants will take place in a 4 county area of west-central Alabama, with the assistance of Veterans Administration Medical Center of Tuscaloosa, area community mental health centers, and area chapters of the National Alliance for the Mentally III. Data obtained from this pilot study will be used to inform the future development of a larger scale, more methodologically rigorous test of the effectiveness of this intervention. This study will test a treatment for older parents of adult children with schizophrenia. The treatment is designed to help these parents increase their life satisfaction and feel better emotionally. ? ? ?
| Kaufman, Allan V; Scogin, Forrest; Macneil, Gordon et al. (2010) Helping Aging Parents of Adult Children with Serious Mental Illness. J Soc Serv Res 36:445-459 |
