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Use of innovative couples therapy to be expanded thanks to research grant and partnership with Alberta Health Services

caroline.zentner — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 16:23:15 +0000

A major two-year grant worth $153,000 from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute will allow ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Health Sciences professors, Drs. Bonnie Lee and Darren Christensen, and their team to gauge the effect of a specialized couples counselling model.

Developed by Lee, Congruence Couple Therapy (CCT) has already undergone a pilot randomized trial and proven its efficacy when used with couples where one member has a gambling disorder. Now Lee is excited to evaluate the use of the therapy in partnership with Alberta Health Services (AHS).

“We are intrigued to compare the treatment outcomes using the model for gambling and for alcohol use disorder, which is at least six times more prevalent than gambling disorder,” says Lee.

Dr. Bonnie Lee

Five researchers from the U of L and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta are involved in a research study that will be conducted at four AHS service sites over a two-year period. Researchers are now visiting each community, including Edmonton, Red Deer and Grande Prairie, to familiarize themselves with current operations.

“We’re paying site visits to understand the needs and variations of existing programs because we will be comparing outcomes using the CCT model to the usual treatment,” she says.

Counsellors with AHS will receive training in CCT and couples who volunteer for the study will be randomly assigned to receive either CCT or existing programs. After 12 weeks, treatment outcomes will be assessed by counsellors and the couples involved.

CCT addresses the roots of addiction and the impact of traumatic childhood family experiences that maintain it.

“Addiction is essentially a relationship disorder with breakdown of trust and communication beginning early in life. Those patterns are displayed in how a couple interacts. Healing partners in intimate relationships is a springboard to recovery,” says Lee.

In Lee’s pilot randomized trial, couples said the therapy was life-changing and gave them compassion for each other. They reported CCT helped them understand what lies behind the addiction to avoid blame, better listen and respond to each other, and revive their spirit and sense of worth. The results are less mental distress, improved relationships, often with their children as well, and decreased need for gambling.

“This innovation I’m bringing into the field is a systemic model that allows you to look at the whole package of what feeds into the addiction,” says Lee. “I’m passionate about bringing this conjoint couple therapy format into the field. It could well develop into a way of working with parents and adolescents.”

The research study also gives university researchers the chance to step into the field to interact with AHS service providers and clients themselves. Lee says funding agencies are increasingly seeing the value of collaborations and partnerships that allow researchers and stakeholders to work together. The Canadian Depression Research Network has added another $10,000 to the study to look at the effects of the intervention on depression, which commonly occurs with addiction.

“We hope through this kind of partnership with Alberta Health Services we can speed up the process of adapting scientific knowledge to the health-care system to make it more usable,” says Lee.

Kulig research released on Slave Lake

trevor.kenney — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:56:58 +0000

A year-long study of people affected by the 2011 Slave Lake, Alberta, Wildfire indicates that as the community continues to recover, particular attention must be paid to families and children.

Dr. Judith Kulig, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Health Sciences researcher and wildfire recovery expert, was on the ground in Slave Lake a month after the disaster.

Along with post-doctoral research associate Dr. Anna Pujadas Botey and colleagues from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Queens, Concordia and Laurentian Universities, Kulig spent the past year surveying families, children, health care professionals, emergency responders, local government officials and educators to get a sense of how the community was, and is, handling the aftermath of the fire.

The May 2011 wildfires affected a large area around Slave Lake and destroyed approximately one third of the town, including homes, the community's library, government offices, businesses and much more. 740 families lost their homes.

The fires resulted in an evacuation of 10,000+ area residents for 12 days, required the combined efforts of some 1,700 emergency responders, and caused an estimated $1 billion of damage.

"This will be no surprise, but we found that parents who were, quite frankly, emotionally drained and stretched to their limits by this event were having trouble supporting their kids – who were equally affected," says Kulig.

"In addition to the displacement caused by the fire, schools were closed, living arrangements were different, and the families were making big decisions: do they rebuild? Do they leave? If their home is gone, where do they live? Even if they had not lost their home, they still had to make sense of what happened."

The researchers also found that there were several supports in place to assist families and children with their emotional and health-related recoveries, which kicked in very soon after the fire, and are ongoing – a positive step that Kulig says is critical to helping the community move forward.

"We noted that several agencies increased their service levels, brought in additional people and launched programs to help people cope. These were excellent responses and we suggest that those programs continue, since the emotional recovery time from a disaster like this can take several years."

Kulig says that, as researchers moved through the community engaging people, they found ample evidence that Slave Lake and area exhibited a solid level of community cohesion and resilience, which is critical to the rebuilding process.

"Despite the huge amount of upheaval, many people initially told us that they were brought closer together as a family because of the fire, and the research bears this out. 92 per cent of the respondents indicated that they were as close, or closer, because of the disaster. As well, we measured family cohesion, which measures a family's ability to work together or relate well to each other, and 89 per cent of respondents said they were as -- or more – cohesive than before the fire."

Kulig cautions, however, that the actual transition back to what some families expressed as 'normal' would not be without challenges.

"We identified six key areas people experienced, and need to be mindful of even now, to ensure they are coping constructively with the disaster's aftermath."

Kulig says that people develop different life goals and priorities. As well, their interactions with their own family members, friends and neighbours and others in the community changed.

"We also noted that people developed new values and perceptions of the important things in their lives. We heard people say a number of times, '…it's just stuff, it can be replaced, but my family can't…'. This is a significant indicator that there is strength and resolve in the community to move forward."

Nursing students make community contribution

trevor.kenney — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:01:22 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Health Sciences (Nursing) students will head to class as usual Thursday, only this time they'll be the teachers.

Teaming with Safety City to deliver expanded programming, services and educational experiences to elementary school children, the U of L students will make a pair of presentations Thursday morning at the Safety City site. It's a partnership that benefits all parties.

"The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Faculty of Health Sciences and the nursing students have been instrumental in helping us keep our doors open," says Safety City Executive Director Linda Besseling.

"Safety City has been delivering children safety programs to the community for the past 13 years. Over the past couple of years, Safety City experienced a cut in funding from some key donors, which resulted in a significant operational shortfall. This impacted the ability of Safety City to continue to offer the programs that are so important to the children of our community and to their overall safety. Now, we are well on our way to becoming more sustainable – and the successful partnership between Safety City and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing program is a great example."

Safety City is a local not-for profit organization that provides pedestrian and bicycle safety training to children ages 6 to 12. The unique partnership they share with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Faculty of Health Sciences and its 3rd and 4th year nursing students is in its second year. U of L students work with Safety City staff to deliver an expanded education program as part of their community health coursework.

Students say the collaboration fits perfectly with the health promotion and injury prevention component of their program – especially since accidents are among the leading cause of death and injury in children under age 14.

"We have been able to see a change in how the children cross the street in the short hour they are with us," says student Tabatha Vanderwekken. "This experience has been really rewarding just knowing we are helping to prevent injuries and save lives."

The students are also working on other projects, which include revising and improving programs, as well as researching how to deliver the programs to special-needs adults.

"We will present a final report to the Safety City board at the end of the semester," Vanderwekken says.

"These different opportunities have allowed us to learn many new skills that we can use for the rest of our nursing careers."

The Safety City Training Facility is located at the east end of North Parkside Drive, just outside the north gate of the Lethbridge Exhibition grounds.

UNews - ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Health Sciences

Use of innovative couples therapy to be expanded thanks to research grant and partnership with Alberta Health Services

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