A comparative study of the effect of group training on Family-Centered Empowerment Program and Self-Compassion Program on Perceived Stress and Stigma of Family Care Providers of Epilepsy Patients

Background &

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disease in a chronic and debilitating nature. In addition to the infected person, the disease also affects their family members. Therefore, the present study was conducted to compare the effect of group training family-centered empowerment program and self-compassion program on the perceived stress and stigma of epilepsy patients’ care providers.
Materials &

By simple random sampling, 60 primary caregivers in people with epilepsy were selected and divided into two groups of experimental and control. The measuring instruments were Cohen’s perceived stress questionnaire with a reliability of 0.87 and Fernandez’s stigma questionnaire with Cronbachchr('39')s alpha of 0.82. To analyze the data, repeated measures analysis of variance test have been conducted using SPSS version 20.

Family-centered empowerment and self-compassion training in comparison with the control group, were able to make significant changes in reducing perceived stress (p<0.001) and social stigma (p<0.001). Also, there was no significant difference between the mean score of self-compassion effectiveness and family empowerment group in perceived stress, but there was a significant difference in social stigma variable (P<0.05) and self-compassion treatment was more effective. Towards family-centered empowerment training had a social stigma variable.

 

In general, the study indicated that family-centered empowerment program and self-compassion one can be taken as effective interferences to mitigate perceived stress and stigma of epilepsy patients’ care providers.