title: A pilot study of a weekend retreat intervention for family survivors of homicide.
abstract: Homicide causes negative unintended consequences for family survivors. Family survivors face complicated grief and overwhelming loss with minimal support from others. The authors offered a retreat intervention as a way to ameliorate the effects of the homicidal death for family survivors of homicide. An exploratory longitudinal pilot study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and explored the impact of the TOZI© Healing intervention on participants' distress symptoms. Eight family members participated in the 2-day retreat and completed surveys at five time intervals over 30 months. Descriptive statistics and correlations were used to analyze the data. Although sample sizes were too small to achieve statistical significance, changes on selected holistic health outcomes, supported by overwhelmingly positive focus group responses to the intervention, affirm the need for further study.
authors.affiliation: North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA. ituck@ncat.edu
authors.forename: Inez
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tuck
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baliko
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017741:Survivors