Psycho-education is a term that commonly gets thrown around, but let’s clarify what it actually is, and perhaps more importantly, what it is not.
Psycho-education is not to be confused with psychotherapy - psychotherapy is the psychological treatment of a mental health problem. Psycho-education, on the other hand, is purely providing education around the mental health problem to the individual suffering and their family in order to help them manage the condition in a more optimal way. It is defined as follows: “an intervention with systematic, structured, and didactic knowledge transfer for an illness and its treatment, integrating emotional and motivational aspects to enable patients to cope with the illness and to improve its treatment adherence and efficacy.”
So, what are the benefits of it?
Empowerment of family members
A recent study has demonstrated that a mere 2-hour psycho-education session on eating disorders combined with bi-weekly telephone support significantly improved parents self-efficacy, empowered parents to support their children’s recovery, and also decreased the impact of eating disorder symptoms on the family.
Reductions in relapse rates
Research has also demonstrated that psycho-education of parents can improve the outcomes of mental and medical illnesses. For example, psycho-education for schizophrenia has been shown to be one of the most effective treatment modalities available, where relapse rates have been shown to drop by a staggering 50-60%. Psycho-education has also been shown to better treatment adherence, lower self-stigma, better quality of life, improvement of social competencies, active engagement in rehabilitation, and lower cost of care, either alone or as a part of complex treatment regimen.
Reductions in feelings of guilt
Psycho-education has also been shown to reduce feelings of guilt amongst family members, particularly in the case of eating disorders. One study reports a parent saying “It [psycho-education sessions] took some of the guilt away. It empowered me a little bit in the sense that I could make a difference. I could be a key element to helping my daughter get better.” Given parents and family members commonly experience high levels of guiltiness and self-blame, psycho-education is suggested to be imperative in overcoming these feelings.
It is clear that psycho-education of parents and families has a key role to play in the recovery of their child/adolescent, which is why this is something we prioritise at Lions Campus.
Source: Written by Anya Aggarwal