Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness and Schema Therapy with Emotion Efficacy Therapy (EET) on Compassion Satisfaction and Sense of Competence in Caregiving Patients with Dementia

Caring for the patient is not always associated with negative symptoms, but the positive experiences and feelings of the caregivers due to the ability to help others can encourage them to continue care despite its negative consequences. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness and schema therapy with emotion efficacy therapy on compassion satisfaction and sense of competence in caregivers of patients with dementia.

The research was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, follow-up, and control group. The statistical population included the caregivers of patients with dementia who were referred to neurology clinics in Isfahan in the summer of 2022. In so doing, 45 caregivers were selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned into two experimental groups and a control group, each comprising 15 caregivers. The experimental groups underwent eight 90-minute sessions of mindfulness and schema therapy and emotion efficacy therapy, and the control group did not receive therapy during this period. The data were collected by Stamm’s Professional Quality of Life Scale and Vernooij-Dassen’s Sense of Competence Questionnaire and were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post-hoc test using SPSS23.

Findings showed that both interventions increased compassion satisfaction and sense of competence in caregivers of patients with dementia, and the effects of both treatments continued into the follow-up phase (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was found between the two experimental groups (p>0.05).

As the findings revealed, mindfulness and schema therapy and emotion efficacy therapy can be used to enhance compassion satisfaction and sense of competence of caregivers of patients with dementia.