Qualitative Analysis of Faith Community Nurse–Led Cognitive-Behavioral and Spiritual Counseling for Dementia Caregivers

Abstract

This article presents themes emerging from semistructured interviews with dementia family caregivers in rural communities who participated in an integrative, cognitive-behavioral and spiritual counseling intervention, and with faith community nurses (FCNs) who delivered the intervention. The primary objectives of the counseling intervention were to ameliorate dementia caregivers' depressive affect and the severity of their self-identified caregiving and self-care problems. The qualitative portion of the study was intended to elicit caregivers' and FCNs' perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of the intervention. We conducted interviews with seven FCN/caregiver pairs 4 times during the 6-month counseling process, totaling 56 interviews. Themes emerging from the interviews included caregivers' perception of burden and care partners' problem behavior; formation of therapeutic alliance between FCNs and caregivers; problem-solving skills, tools, and resources; caregivers' use of problem-solving strategies; spirituality in caregiving and counseling processes; FCNs' prior professional experience; and caregiver and FCN time constraints.

Mediating effect of spiritual coping strategies on caregiving burden and mental health in caregivers of Iranian patients with dementia

“…[20] In a qualitative study on family carers of dementia people, spirituality has also been identified as the main factor that can ameliorate depressive symptoms in the caregivers. [38] These studies are consistent with our findings emphasizing the potential effects of spirituality via SCSs to improve psychological status in the caregivers.…”

What Are the Characteristics of the Parish Nursing Research Literature and How Can it Inform Parish Nurse Practice and Research in Canada? A Scoping Review

“…For the most part, all 14 qualitative studies meet the quality criteria for appropriateness of the methods and reporting of the data collection methods and sources (Devido et al, 2018; Dyess, 2008; Dyess & Chase, 2012; Grebeldinger & Buckley, 2016; Kazmer et al, 2017; King, 2011; Millerd, 2010; Mock, 2017; Newbanks & Rieg, 2011; Sheehan et al, 2013; Shores, 2014; Van Dover & Pfeiffer, 2011; Young, 2015; Ziebarth & Miller, 2010). According to MMAT criteria, there is insufficient evidence to confirm that the findings are adequately derived from the data in six of the 14 studies; we appraised this criterion as “can't tell” in five articles (Grebeldinger & Buckley, 2016; King, 2011; Mock, 2017; Sheehan et al, 2013; Young, 2015) and “no” in one study (Newbanks & Rieg, 2011).…”

Effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapeutic interventions for people with dementia and their families: a systematic review

“…For example, one high-quality study (Losada et al, 2015) indicated that both face-to-face counselling interventions (CBT and commitment therapy) were superior in reducing depressive symptoms compared to the control group (a two-hour dementia psycho-educational workshop and booklet termed 'minimal support') post-intervention. Similarly, a high-quality study (Kazmer et al, 2018) indicated cognitive-behavioural counselling can improve care-giver depression. Furthermore, two case studies delivered cognitive-based counselling interventions face-to-face to care-givers (Jimenez and Gray, 2006;Hamill and Mahony, 2011), and reported that depression and anxiety scores were reduced.…”

“…Within the 11 studies that adopted a cognitive-behavioural/cognitive-analytic approach, only three studies delivered the intervention face-to-face (Jimenez and Gray, 2006;Losada et al, 2015;Kazmer et al, 2018), to a range of sample sizes (N = 1, 7 and 135 respectively).…”