Parent Educational Group Intervention (PEGI)
PEGI recognizes that Parents/Caregivers may experience cumulative stressors in their lives that impact on their self-care. PEGI follows the Psychoeducational Family Therapy Model which is an empirically based form of therapy that seeks to impart information through education to families experiencing an accumulation of stressors in their caregiving roles. Participants are typically family members / caregivers of individuals living with various neurodevelopmental differences, mental illness, and/or chronic illnesses.
Session breakdown
The program sessions are 1.5 hours, weekly, for 8 weeks and are facilitated by a Master’s level therapist. The group can include up to 12 participants. Each session consists of 3 components which are interwoven throughout each session. The 3 components are:
1. Psychoeducation – Education will cover areas around personal self-care including: Understanding Caregiver Distress and Impact, Ways to Manage Stress through DBT practices, Practicing Mindfulness and Self-Compassion, and Caregiver Brain Health, in addition. In addition, there will be some education components focused on supporting the caregiver towards a better understanding of Mental Health in Individuals with Neurodevelopmental Differences and Positive Behavioural Strategies. There will also be room for participants to collaborate around topics that they may find useful outside of the core components of education.
2. Psychotherapeutic Support: discussing and processing information being shared through the educational components with caregivers who have experienced similar cumulative challenges and stressors in their role.
3. Personalized Action Plan: Integration of learning resulting in improved self-care and decreased distress in their caregiving roles through the use of a Personalized Action Plan.
Program goals
The program aims to provide interventions to caregivers that maintain a balance between education and psychotherapeutic support. The program goals are to:
1. Empower caregivers to engage in their self-care through education, support, and acting on their needs.
2. Understand “caregiver distress” and learn about stress management in order to better manage cumulative and daily stressors.
3. Increase coping skills, and provide a safe environment to share feelings and experiences in order to get psychotherapeutic support and validation.
The group can also been offered to larger groups in a one-day format, and although there is less opportunity for the therapeutic portion to be implemented, the educational content is rich with information.
If you are an agency or organization that is interested in providing PEGI in either an 8-week group format or one-day presentation, please contact us for more detailed information. Let us work with you to individualize this empowering group to the Families and Caregivers your agency supports.
About the program: The P.E.G.I. program, originally named E.F.I. (Elgin Family Intervention, working title), was developed and researched as part of the author’s master’s thesis, with the support of the Developmental Disabilities Mental Health Services and the University of Calgary. The program had been trialed for research purposes and this research suggested that family caregivers were “highly satisfied” with the program. Pre- and post- data suggested participants found all three components “highly beneficial”. The knowledge was useful and relevant; they felt “less isolated” and “more validated” and normalized; and they learned to problem-solve, set goals, and act on their personalized action plans. The program was also presented at the Health and Wellbeing Conference for People with Developmental Disabilities in September 2008 and was well received.