Structural Ecosystems Therapy for recovering HIV-positive women: child, mother, and parenting outcomes

Do preventive interventions for children of mentally ill parents work? Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The transgenerational transmission of mental disorders is one of the most significant causes of psychiatric morbidity. Several risk factors for children of parents with mental illness (COPMI) have been identified in numerous studies and meta-analyses.

RECENT FINDINGS

Many interventions have been developed for this high-risk group, but data about their efficacy are heterogeneous.

SUMMARY

The current meta-analysis reports on 96 articles including 50 independent samples from randomized controlled trials quantifying effects of preventive interventions for COPMI. Random effect models resulted in small, though significant Effect Sizes (ES) for programs enhancing the mother-infant interaction (ES = 0.26) as well as mothers' (ES = 0.33) and children's (ES = 0.31) behavior that proved to be stable over the 12-month follow-up, except for infants' behavior. Interventions for children/adolescents resulted in significant small effects for global psychopathology (ES = 0.13), as well as internalizing symptoms (ES = 0.17), and increased significantly over time, with externalizing symptoms reaching significance in the follow-up assessments as well (ES = 0.17). Interventions addressing parents and children jointly produced overall larger effects. Higher study quality was associated with smaller effects. There is a dearth of high quality studies that effectively reduce the high risk of COPMI for the development of mental disorders.

A methodological pilot: parenting among women in substance abuse treatment

BACKGROUND

Mothers who abuse substances are likely to have insecure emotional attachment with their children, placing their children at risk for social-emotional and psychiatric conditions. Sobriety does not inevitably improve parenting.

OBJECTIVES

We tested recruitment methods, audiovisual (AV) recording procedures, the protocol for identifying child abuse risk, the coding of mother-child interactions, and retention of the sample for repeated measures as the first phase in examining mother-child relational quality of women in substance abuse treatment.

DESIGN

This innovative study involved AV recordings to capture the in-vivo mother-child interactional behaviors that were later coded and analyzed for mean scores on the 64-item Parent-Child Relational Quality Assessment. Repeated measurement was planned during treatment and two months after discharge from treatment.

RESULTS

The pilot involved a small sample (n = 11) of mother-child (<6 years) dyads. Highest and lowest ratings of interaction behaviors were identified. Mothers showed less enthusiasm and creativity but matched their child's emotional state. The children showed appropriate motor skill items and attachment behaviors. The dyad coding showed less mutual enjoyment between the mother and child. Eight of the participants could not be located for the second measurement despite multiple contact methods.

CONCLUSIONS

AV recordings capture rich, descriptive information that can be coded for interactional quality analysis. Repeated measurement with this cohort was not feasible, thus needing to assess for additional/more frequent contacts to maintain the sample.

The relationship between social support and anxiety among caregivers of children in HIV-endemic South Africa

Caring for children can be a source of joy and fulfilment, but also a source of stress, especially for caregivers living with illness and/or coping with difficult socio-economic conditions. Risks for poor caregiver mental health are especially salient in many parts of southern Africa affected by a generalised HIV-epidemic, high rates of physical illness, difficult livelihood conditions and an increasing number of orphaned and vulnerable children in need of care. Given limited availability and low uptake of formal mental health services in South Africa, the potential protective role of informal community or "social" resources for caregiver populations requires greater attention. To our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitatively assess the relationship between social support and symptomatic anxiety among caregivers of children living in HIV-endemic southern African communities. The data are from household survey interviews with 2477 adult primary caregivers of children aged 10-17 years living in two (urban and rural) resource-deprived HIV-endemic South African communities. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis with interaction terms was conducted to assess whether HIV and other illness were significant stressors for caregiver anxiety, whether social support had main or stress-buffering protective effects on anxiety and whether gender moderated the association between social support and anxiety. Our findings showed significant main effects of social support on caregiver anxiety, but no evidence of stress-buffering effects of support or of gender moderating the support-anxiety relationship. This suggests that social support is a general mental health resource for both male and female caregivers of children in these HIV-endemic communities, regardless of whether they are facing specific stressors related to HIV or other illness. Our results highlight the importance of paying greater attention to the social environment when designing and implementing caregiver health interventions, and indicate that social support could be a valuable component of such interventions.

An ecosystem-based intervention to reduce HIV transmission risk and increase medication adherence among inmates being released to the community

HIV+ inmates reentering their communities are at increased risk for poor health outcomes and for transmitting HIV. This article reports on a randomized trial comparing an ecosystem-based intervention and an individually focused intervention for reducing HIV transmission risk and improving medication adherence. Reincarceration was considered as a secondary variable. Both groups decreased sexual risk behavior over the 12-month follow-up period. Unexpectedly, the ecosystem intervention group was less likely to be taking medication or to be adherent and more likely to have been reincarcerated. Failure to demonstrate a significant advantage of the ecosystem intervention may have resulted from the difficulty of engaging family and other ecosystem members in the intervention. Implications for developing and applying interventions for this population are discussed.

"They give us hope": HIV-positive caregivers' perspectives on the role of social support for health

A number of studies indicate that social support is associated with better health outcomes among HIV-positive caregivers of children, suggesting its potential importance for interventions aimed at safeguarding the well-being of this population. However, there is very little published literature assessing the support-health relationship or evaluating applied social support interventions with HIV-positive populations in HIV-endemic contexts of the developing world. The global literature on social support and health suggests that, in order to refine theory and improve interventions, greater attention should be paid to specific dimensions of support, such as types and sources, as well as the processes through which support may be affecting health outcomes. This article presents and discusses data from in-depth interviews with 12 HIV-positive primary caregivers of children living in an HIV-endemic, low-resourced, urban South African community. The primary aim of this qualitative work was to provide further insight into survey findings of a positive relationship between social support and self-reported general health and functioning, by exploring caregivers' personal experiences of being supported within their community, and their perceptions on how this "informal" support may be influencing their health. Our qualitative data highlight the importance of instrumental and emotional support for this population, the relevance of support provider characteristics and some of the processes or pathways that are likely explaining the support-health link. These processes include psychological factors such as mastery and hope, coping strategies and positive health behaviours. We provide recommendations for future research to further this work, and discuss implications for health interventions.

A discussion of HIV/AIDS family interventions: implications for family-focused nursing practice

AIM

This article presents a discussion on the role of family interventions in HIV/AIDS disease prevention and care.

BACKGROUND

Although HIV/AIDS epidemic and its impact on the society traditionally has been measured in terms of individual risk behaviours and individual-level HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS family-focused prevention and management strategies are increasingly becoming a priority. However, little is known as to what constitutes a HIV/AIDS family intervention.

DATA SOURCES

The search was limited to English and published literature starting in the year 1983 to date. CINAHL and PubMed were emphasized using a combination of text words and subject headings. Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, Scopus, and the ISI Web of Science databases were also searched using keywords and in the case of PsycInfo, subject headings were used. The main keywords were 'nurse', or 'nursing', 'HIV/AIDS', 'family interventions', 'family support' and 'family education', and/or 'family subsystems'.

DISCUSSION

The process of theorizing about 'family interventions' and 'HIV/AIDS-family interventions' is critical for putting forth essential components unique for designing culturally specific HIV/AIDS family interventions. In addition, any proposed design of HIV/AIDS family intervention should consider the impact of HIV/AIDS on the family across the family life span, disease trajectory, and from an interdisciplinary perspective.

CONCLUSION

Training needs of family nurses should be met when designing multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS-FIs. Furthermore, nurses should be proactive in advocating for HIV/AIDS family intervention and HIV/AIDS family policies to improve outcomes in family functioning, processes, and relationships. More needs to be done in regard to research on families, family interventions, effectiveness, and cost of family-focused approaches.