Healing Together: Effectiveness of Group Therapy with Patients of Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Current study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy interventions on the SCI patients’ psychological well-being (symptoms of anxiety and depression) and health impacts. Patients with Spinal Cord Injuries mostly (SCI) mostly experience profound psychological challenges, like depression, anxiety and emotional distress. Such mental health problems are the result of maladjustment due to transition from independence to lifelong physical dependence. These psychological challenges creates hurdles in the rehabilitation process and affect the overall quality of life. For the intervention based Pre and post study design, a purposive sample of 15 male participants (SCI) was taken with informed consent. The baseline for depression, anxiety and physical health was measured. The patients participated in weekly sessions (almost 90 minutes) of group therapy; including techniques of relaxation exercise (included listening to Surah Al Rahman), empty chair technique, assertiveness training, and feedback at the end of sessions. The age, education and SES status of members varied as the sample was purposive as per availability of patients at Paraplegic center. To assess the pre- to post intervention difference, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983) and Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) (Hunt, 1981) were used. Data was analyzed by SPSS, paired sample t-test was done to measure effect of group therapy and the results revealed significant reduction in levels of anxiety -pre-treatment (M = 14.00, SD = 1.72) to post-treatment (M = 4.53, SD = 1.45)- and depression-pre-treatment (M = 15.84, SD = 2.16) to post-treatment (M = 4.07, SD = 2.05), and in health status-pre-treatment(NHP-1) (M = 28.73, SD = 3.84) to post-treatment (NHP-2) (M = 12.53, SD = 3.89)-of the patients. The obtained results shows significant reduction in symptoms from pre to post intervention level in Anxiety, depression and health profile all. The effectiveness of culturally adapted group based therapeutic interventions in improving anxiety and depressive symptoms, the social skills, coping mechanisms and and overall emotional well being has high significance. The study is valuable with reference to generating ideas of incorporating psycho-social support and care into rehabilitation centers, where mental health is often neglected or ignored mostly by dominant physical recovery needs. Such group based interventions can be economical in-terms of monetary as well as temporal value that serve community in more efficient manner. Most importantly, impact of group itself and its members upon psychological states of patients is auxiliary to therapeutic value.