Authors (including presenting author) :
YIP MK(1); TSE WM(2); Wong MO(3); Tsang HH(4), Siu LH(5), Tam KH (6), Cheung YH(7), Chan WY (8), Lau SH(9)
(1)Yip Mei Ki: Advanced Practice Nurse/ Community Psychiatric Service/North District Hospital
(2)Tse Wai Man: Assistant Social Work Officer/ Community Psychiatric Service/North District Hospital
(3)Wong Mei On: Nursing Consultant/Psy/NTEC
(4)Tsang Hing Ho: Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
(5)Tam Ka Hei: Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
(6)Siu Long Hang: Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
(7)Cheung Yuen Hang:Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
(8)Chan Wing Yiu: Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
(9)Lau Siu Hin: Registered Nurse Psychiatric/North District Hospital
Affiliation :
Community Psychiatric Service/ North District Hospital
Introduction :
Every family learns and matures through overcoming family adversities and crises.
Walsh’s family resilience process model aims to improve families by strengthening family bonds, promoting coping skills, building social connections, and maximizing the flexibility of family roles and strengths to help families facilitate optimal adaptation.
A resilient family provides enhanced emotional support and coping strategies for our mental health service users, fostering open and effective communication. It also acts as an early intervention to face their hardships confidently.
Collaborating with the IFSC of the social welfare department is essential to leverage resources, expertise, and support systems, ensuring a comprehensive approach to enhancing family resilience.
Therefore, a community-based program is needed to promote skills to enhance family resilience among our service users.
Objectives :
To enhance family resilience by making positive meaning, enhancing social and connectedness and problem-solving skills under the framework of Walsh’s model
Methodology :
The program's recruitment was primarily family-based, followed by individuals from the North District Community psychiatric service who had ineffective family communication and wanted to strengthen family resilience.
Nine face-to-face sessions were held from May to December 2024, including six theoretical and three practical sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours. The content included using family photos to make WhatsApp stickers; peer support worker experiential sharing on facing family taboos, Capturing a Family Portrait in IFSC studio; City-hunt for community resources(Carer café, Community Pharmacy and District Health Centre); Two family re-treat days of Barbeque in Pak Shek Kok and Cheung Chau day trip.
The Family Hardiness Index (FHI) (McCubbin, McCubbin, & Thompson, 1986) was used for pre-test and post-test assessments to measure family adaptation. It focused on co-oriented commitment, confidence in handling problems, and internal control over circumstances. A satisfaction survey gathered participants' feedback.
Result & Outcome :
The program recruited 8 families (8 clients and 8 family members) and 4 individuals, a total of 20 participants. Among the 12 participants, 66.7% were female with an average age of 44.7 years, and they had various psychiatric illnesses, including psychosis (58.3%) and neurosis (41.7%). 25% had a history of violence towards family members, and 41.7% had suicidal tendencies due to family issues. The average attendance was 17.2 participants per session, with an 86.1% attendance rate. Family members consistently joined the activities to support the mental health service users.
The Family Hardiness Index (FHI) showed a positive impact in 11 out of 12 participants, with improvements from the pre-test (2.75) to the post-test (2.93), a mean difference of 0.18. A paired t-test confirmed this change was statistically significant (t-value = 2.35, p-value = 0.021), resulting in an 84.62% positive change rate. Participants showed positive changes in the aspects of change (7.21%), challenge (8.42%), and control (7.52%). This indicates increased resilience and better stress handling among mental health service users. The satisfaction survey indicated positive feedback from both users and carers. With these encouraging results, we aim to continue our implementation in collaboration with community partners to enhance family resilience further.
