Grief and Communication Family Intervention

Ersta Sköndal University College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Grief; Communication

Treatments: Behavioral: Grief and Communication Family Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03351582

DRN 2016/1192/31/1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The overall purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of a family therapy intervention for grieving families with children. The main outcome variable is family communication.

Full description

The intervention study will test a supportive family therapy intervention for families where a parent has died from cancer between 2013 and 2015. This will be a randomized controlled trial where participants are assigned to one of three groups using a random number sequence generated by a computer program with approximately 25 families in each intervention group.

Group one will meet with a family therapist for one 90 minute session where the main focus will be on providing information through psychoeducation on grief and communication to participants.

Group two will participate in a family therapy intervention comprised of three 90 minute sessions. participants will receive the same psychoeducation as group one and will also work with the family therapist to enhance family communication and process their grief. The 3 sessions are manual based.

Group three will be the control group and will not meet with a family therapist.

Participants will be asked if their sessions with the family therapist can be tape-recorded, but do not have to consent to this in order to participate. Approximately 6 participants need to be recorded in order to ensure that the family therapists are covering the same topics and giving the same information to all participants. In this way we can ensure that the method of intervention is the same no matter which therapist is delivering the intervention thereby validating the method of intervention.

Follow up will occur 1 month and 6 months after the intervention has ended. Each participant will fill in a short questionnaire regarding grief and Communication. Validated instruments will also be included in the questionnaire.

Enrollment: 24 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants are families with Children ages 3-19 who have completed our questionnaire study and have responses indicating that one or more family members have symptoms of complicated grief or a negative pattern of communication within the family. All family members who live in the same home may participate in the family therapy intervention including new partners or step children. It is up to the family to decide which family members will be included.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants must reside in Stockholm, Sweden during data collection, speak and understand written and spoken Swedish.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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24 participants in 3 patient groups

Grief and Communication One Session

Experimental group

Description:

Group one will meet with a family therapist for one 90 minute session where the main focus will be on providing psychoeducation on grief and communication to both children and parents. This arm receives only the first session of the grief and communication family intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Grief and Communication Family Intervention

Grief and Communication Three Sessions

Experimental group

Description:

Thie Group will receive all three sessions of the grief and communication family intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Grief and Communication Family Intervention

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Group three will be the control group and will not receive the grief and communication family intervention.