Professional Doctorate theses
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/7300
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Item The parent programme: a psycho-educational intervention for parents of children with autism(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2013) McCreadie, MichaelBackground Having a child with autism places significant demands on parents. Few interventions address parental understanding of the meaning behind child behaviour, and the relationship this has with parental stress. Parent-mediated interventions focus on behaviour exhibited by the child and ignore parental stress. This study assesses the impact of a psycho-educational intervention, which assists parents to derive meaning from their child’s behaviour. Aims The overall aim was to investigate if an intervention targeted exclusively at parents would: • Reduce parent stress associated with Child Characteristics • Reduce parent stress associated with Parenting Characteristics • Facilitate changes in parental coping styles Methods A quantitative approach was adopted to evaluate the impact of the intervention. Measures of parental stress (Parenting Stress Index) and parental coping (Ways of Coping, Revised) were taken at three time intervals; prior to, at a mid-point, and at the end of the intervention. Results Questionnaires were completed by 71 parents and the results were computed using a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). There was a statistically significant change within the parent and child domains of the Parenting Stress Index (p. 0.0005), with parents showing less stress associated with interpretations of their child’s behaviour, and significant changes in their use of problem-focussed coping. Conclusion Parent-mediated interventions that target parent characteristics associated with child behaviour, are inexpensive and have significant benefit. However, we require further research to explore the relationship between stress and coping variables in parents of children with autism to inform the future direction of intervention.Item A service evaluation study exploring the therapeutic effectiveness of a Reiki intervention in the local Community of cancer patients(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2017) Kunvardia, NehaObjective To explore the perceived therapeutic benefits of Reiki on health outcomes in a local community of patients attending treatment at a Cancer Treatment Centre (CTC). Background Reiki was introduced as a new therapy to enhance the provision of a holistic complementary care package to patients at the Cancer Support Centre (CSC). At the time of its delivery, not a great deal was known about its benefits, thus emphasising the need for a Reiki service evaluation to develop an understanding based on patient experiences concerning its perceived benefits. Method An exploratory service evaluation was conducted using an uncontrolled before-and-after design with a group of inpatients (n= 75) and outpatients (n = 25) from the CTC. Reiki therapy was evaluated using an in-house instrument comprising four surveys. Measures were taken at baseline assessment and same-day follow-up in both inpatients and outpatients, with two additional follow-up time points at week two and five for outpatients. Findings An exploration of the data indicated that Reiki can provide significant therapeutic relief for the rest of the day and up to one week. Participants felt Reiki was helpful in improving symptoms of pain, tension, calmness, anxiety, stress, low mood, and trouble sleeping. Positive correlations were also found between expectations of Reiki's perceived helpfulness at baseline and perceived symptomatic improvement in tension and calmness at follow-up. Overall, the experiences were positive; 88% of participants stated they were likely to seek Reiki elsewhere and 100% stated they would recommend it to others. These findings demonstrate that Reiki is a valuable complementary therapy that is able to attenuate the stress of cancer, and its provision within hospitals settings can improve supportive care services offered to patients.