title: Evaluation of a family systems intervention for managing pediatric chronic illness: Mastering Each New Direction (MEND).
abstract: Family systems play a crucial, albeit complex, role in pediatric chronic illness. Unfortunately, very few psychosocial interventions are available to help these stressed families navigate the developmental steps of chronic illness. A new intervention (MEND) addresses the needs of these families and applies to a broad range of chronic illnesses. This article presents this family systems intervention as well as includes preliminary program evaluation data on 22 families that graduated from the program. Results show consistently strong effects across an array of psychosocial measures. Conclusions from this preliminary study suggest that families entering MEND present with high levels of stress due to the child's chronic illness, but after MEND, the level of stress and other functioning measures are comparable to those seen in healthy families, suggesting that the program offers a significant benefit to families with pediatric chronic illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling and Family Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Distelberg
authors.forename: Jackie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Williams-Reade
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tapanes
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: Mayuri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pandit
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D019468:Disease Management; D005192:Family Health / Q000193:education*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Chronic illness; Diabetes; Kidney Disease; Pediatric; Psychosocial Intervention; Rheumatology; diabetes; enfermedad crónica; enfermedad renal; intervención psicosocial; pediátrica; reumatología; 小儿科; 心理干预; 慢性疾病; 糖尿病; 肾病; 风湿病学