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Evaluation of a Family Systems Intervention for Managing Pediatric Chronic Illness: Mastering Each New Direction ( MEND )
Author(s) -
Distelberg Brian,
WilliamsReade Jackie,
Tapanes Daniel,
Montgomery Susanne,
Pandit Mayuri
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/famp.12066
Subject(s) - psychosocial , intervention (counseling) , psychological intervention , family therapy , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , clinical psychology
Family systems play a crucial, albeit complex, role in pediatric chronic illness. Unfortunately, very few psychosocial interventions are available to help these stressed families navigate the developmental steps of chronic illness. A new intervention ( MEND ) addresses the needs of these families and applies to a broad range of chronic illnesses. This article presents this family systems intervention as well as includes preliminary program evaluation data on 22 families that graduated from the program. Results show consistently strong effects across an array of psychosocial measures. Conclusions from this preliminary study suggest that families entering MEND present with high levels of stress due to the child's chronic illness, but after MEND , the level of stress and other functioning measures are comparable to those seen in healthy families, suggesting that the program offers a significant benefit to families with pediatric chronic illness.