The strength, hope and resourcefulness program for people with Parkinson’s disease: a qualitative investigation of group members’ experiences

ABSTRACT

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor and non-motor features. Many people with PD struggle with mental health issues such as depression. Evidence shows that people with PD may have trouble adopting a hopeful or positive orientation given their diagnosis and symptoms. Psychological treatments for PD are scarce and even more scarce are treatments that specifically focus on promoting hope and well-being. The Strengths, Hope, and Resourcefulness Program for People with Parkinson’s Disease was developed to begin to address this treatment gap. This qualitative study identifies seven processes group members found helpful during treatment: Accessing Hope, Comparing, Drawing Together, Reaching Out Beyond Self, Releasing Emotion, Sharing Skills and Picking Up Resources, and Self-Reflecting Leading to Personal Insight. The unique contributions of an intentional and explicit hope, strengths, and resources intervention are discussed with specific attention to therapeutic process and practice.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

• Provides client-elicited information useful to the implementation of hope and strength-focused approaches to group work with those with Parkinson’s Disease.

• The group treatment may reinforce the value of hope as a therapeutic group factor by facilitating its emergence and contribution to group cohesion.

• Affords an important precursor to hope through the expression of difficult emotions in a safe environment.

• Offers insights into the group leader’s role as process facilitator rather than top-down content expert.

KEYWORDS:

• positive psychology
• group therapy
• strengths
• qualitative
• Parkinson‘s disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the University of Alberta Hospital Foundation .