Evelyn Aranas

Citation

Thesis Title
An Investigation into the Effectiveness of the Health Conditions Service Group
Manualised Treatment Programme

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Living with a chronic health condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, can have a significant psychological impact. Mrs Aranas developed two manualised group interventions based on a biopsychosocial model framework. A mixed methods approach investigated whether participants'' quality of life improved and whether psychological distress was reduced. She interviewed nine people including group participants as well as the clinicians who facilitated the programme. The results indicated that participants were initially apprehensive, but benefited from being with others and implemented skills they had learned in the group. This study also highlighted some of the difficulties in implementing evidence based efficacious therapy as it is applied and practiced in a naturalistic clinical setting. It has also added to the limited literature both within New Zealand and internationally on group centered psychological treatments for chronic health conditions.

Supervisors
Mrs Cheryl Woolley
Professor Christine Stephens