Effect of Psycho-Educational Program on Psychological Stress and Resilience Among Families Caring for Children with Intellectual Disability

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 lecturer of Psychiatric, Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University

2 Lecturer of psychiatry faculty of medicine, Misr University for science and technology

Abstract

Background: Family caring for children with Intellectual Disability tend to report higher rates of psychological stress which impacts their ability to meet their child’s needs. So, the family needs to remain resilient in the face of significant stress in their lives. Aim. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the psycho-educational program on psychological stress and resilience among family caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities. Research design: A quasi-experimental research design was used in this study. Subjects. The study subjects consisted of 70 family caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities. Setting:  The study was conducted at the child psychiatric outpatient clinic of Al Abbassia mental health hospital. Tools: The data was collected using 1) An interview questionnaire to assess sociodemographic characteristics of family caregivers and their children 2) Psychological Stress Scale. 3) Resilience scale to measure resilience among family caregivers of children with intellectual disability. Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference observed pre-and post-program implementation regarding the total level of psychological stress among family caregivers understudy, where preprogram implementation, more than three-fifths of subjects under study (62.9%) had a severe level of psychological stress, meanwhile, a small minority of them reported sever degree of psychological stress in the post-program implementation phase, representing 12.9%. Also, there was a remarkable improvement in the total level of resilience among family caregivers understudy post-program implementation, where more than two-thirds of them (70%) had a low level of resilience preprogram, and 5.8% of them only reported a low level of resilience post-program implementation. Conclusions. The total level of psychological stress has been decreased post- psychoeducational program implementation compared to the pre-program implementation and there was a remarkable improvement also in the level of resilience post-program implementation compared to the pre-program implementation. Recommendations. This study recommended that a counseling clinic should be established for all family caregivers caring for children with intellectual disabilities to offer appropriate information and psychological support and guide them to know how to deal with their child’s problems to decrease stress and improve resilience

Keywords

Egyptian Journal of Health Care
Volume 11, Issue 4
December 2020
Pages 1062-1076

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