Increasing Mexican American attendance of support groups for parents of the mentally ill: Organizational and psychological factors

Abstract

Research was carried out to identify organizational and psychological factors associated with the attendance by Mexican Americans at family support groups. Qualitative and action‐oriented pilot research identified parents' preferences for organizational arrangements, and two support groups were created that were Spanish speaking, facilitated by bilingual mental health professionals, and closely linked to ethnic mental health agencies. A prospective study was then carried out that involved 32 Mexican families with a son/daughter being treated for schizophrenia at one of the two agencies. The parent who was the primary caregiver in each family was interviewed and then referred to one of the two groups; parents' attendance was followed for 1 year. Parent attendance was related to the level of burden experienced and assumptions about the causes of their son/daughter's problems.

Encouraging People With Mood Disorders to Attend a Self‐Help Group1

“…Like this study, they used a one-meeting attendance as the criterion. However, this study's 56% rate of attendance exceeds the rates found in studies of Alliance for the Mentally Ill (44%; Medvene, Mendoza, Lin, Harris, & Miller, 1995), mental health consumers (17%; Kaufmann et al, 1994), and bereaved persons (29%; Levy 8z Derby, 1992). And while the one-meeting standard of attendance is a modest one, it is a standard that has been associated with beneficial outcomes in follow-up studies (Medvene et al, 1995).…”

“…Although attendance is a proxy for involvement, many researchers testing interventions to increase self-help involvement have used attendance as the outcome variable (Kaufmann et al, 1994;Levy, Derby, & Martinkowski, 1993;Medvene, Mendoza, Lin, Harris, & Miller, 1995;Sisson & Mallams 1981). Attendance has an advantage over other outcome variables (e.g., participation) in that it can be more readily and reliably measured.…”

The effectiveness and active ingredients of mutual support groups for family caregivers of people with psychotic disorders: A literature review

“…Approximately three-quarters (n = 19, 76%) of the studies reviewed measured a variety of families' psychosocial conditions using standardised measures such as family burden, social support, levels of stress and coping ability, community service utilisation, and knowledge of mental illness. Five measured family outcomes using selfdesigned or non-standardised research instruments such as parents' preferences for helpseeking and group arrangement (Medvene et al, 1995), perceived group benefits, and perceptions of information, coping, and support (Turnbull et al, 1994); and only eight measured specific patient outcomes such as relapse, psychiatric symptoms, and functioning.…”

“…Single cohort or non-equivalent groups were used in seven studies reviewed: Gidron, Guterman and Hartman (1990), Mannion et al (1996), Medvene et al (1995), and Cook, Heller and Pickett-Schenk (1999) used participants vs. non-participants; Heller, Roccoforte and Cook (1997a) used longitudinal non-equivalent groups; and Sheridan andMoore (1991) andTurnbull et al (1994) used a single cohort. Although the research design might induce a systematic sampling bias or limit the power of their generalisation to future mutual support group studies, the findings provided more information about the perceived benefits of group participation to family caregivers of people with severe mental illness.…”

A Stress-Coping Model for Conceptualizing the Impact of Substance Abuse on Families

“…In addition, it also has a relationship with the amount of social support that caregivers receive. Several empirical studies bear out these results (Falloon et al, 1993;Guarancia, 1998;Medvane, Mendoza, Lin, & Harris, 1995;Pickett, Cook, & Heller, 1998).…”