The Efficacy of a Compassionate Mind Training Program With Caregivers of Residential Youth Care

Summary

This clinical trial aims to improve the quality of the care provided in residential youth care, through a Compassionate Mind Training (CMT-C) program targeted to caregivers. The promotion of an affiliative mentality of caring, warmth and affection in the residential care setting is operationalized through the development of a compassionate-self and compassionate care skills. A cluster randomized trial with a control group was carried out in order to test the efficacy of a 12-session Compassionate Mind Training Program to caregivers of residential youth care in increasing compassion, self-compassion, social safeness, emotional climate, empathy, emotion regulation, satisfaction with life, and resiliency and in reducing self-criticism, fears of compassion as well as stress, burnout, anxiety and depression. Youths in residential care were also assessed as informants, thought self-reported questionnaires on current experiences of warmth and safeness, social safeness, emotional climate, positive and negative affect. The organizational impact was assessed via focus groups. It is hypothesized that the CMT-C would produce significant improvements in outcome measures, when comparing caregivers who receive the CMT-C with those in the control group. It is expected that after the training, caregivers will present a greater sensibility to their own and others suffering and motivation to relieve it, exhibiting and experiencing empathic responses. Consequently, it is also expected that youths in care perceive more warmth and safeness experiences with caregivers and a more secure and safe emotional climate in the residential care home.

Conditions

• Compassion

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Compassionate Mind Training for Caregivers

CMT-C is a 12-session group program, each lasting about 2,5 hours, which run on a weekly basis. The program is organized across 3 modules: 1) Our mind according to a compassion-based approach (to provide insight into the evolved and socially shaped mind and the affect regulation systems); 2) Compassionate mind training (understanding and cultivating the attributes and competencies of compassion in its three flows, and addressing its fears); and 3) final session (revising key information and practices and its application to the RCH practices/routines). Its sessions have the following structure: 1) Check-in (grounding exercise, reviewing the previous session, sharing the weekly practice); 2) Exploration of the session theme (psychoeducation and experiential practices followed by group opportunities for share experiences and discussion); 3) Check-out (session summary and application to the self, youths and RCH practices, weekly practice challenge, session evaluation, session take-off).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Coimbra

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Daniel Rijo, PhD · CINEICC

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-05-01

Primary Completion

2021-12-30

Completion

2022-01-30

Countries

• Portugal

Study Locations