Authors (including presenting author) :
Lau KSC(1), Lam HMH(1), Mak TYJ(1), Chan KS(1), Kwok KC(1), Yeung KY(1), Chiu LPR(1), Chu HWM(1), Poon YCM(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Kwai Chung Hospital
Introduction :
‘Hope’, a positive cognitive state, plays an important role in the recovery of people with mental illness according to scientific models. In decades, local therapeutic programs tend to aim at improving one’s well-being or reducing negative cognition in psychiatric rehabilitation. The ways to instill hope in clinical settings and its effect are not well-studied. Tree of Life (ToL), a time-limited program using narrative therapy developed by Dulwich Centre in South Australia and the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative in Africa, is classified a methodology of hope. Originally designed for children experiencing hardships, the program is translated and adopted to adults with common mental disorders in Hong Kong with the centre’s consent.
Objectives :
Given there is insufficient local evidence to prove the effectiveness of narrative therapy, this pilot study was to test the effectiveness of ToL on one’s hope and recovery among adult with common mental disorder from a special out-patient clinic.
Methodology :
The study is a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures at three time-points. Day and out-patients receiving Occupational Therapy and fulfilled the inclusion criteria are recruited to receive a 2-day intervention with the adopted version of ToL. The subjects attend a focus group after the intervention to evaluate the program qualitatively.
Result & Outcome :
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 4 participants were recruited without attrition. The result showed subjects had positive change in their perceived capacity to find routes to goals (agency sub-scale) and the motivation to use those routes (pathway sub-scale), as reflected by the increasing mean score from 39.5 (SD=9.47) at the baseline to 45.0 (SD=2.34) 3 months after the intervention on the Dispositional Hope Scale. Standing at a cut-off above 40.0, the score suggested that the subjects stayed ‘hopeful’ across time amid the pandemic.
Despite a slight level-off at 3-month follow-up, subjects also reported to have an improvement in recovery on the Mental Health Recovery Measure (mean score +8.25), an improvement in their well-being on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (mean score +1.25), and a reduction in depressive signs and symptoms on Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (mean score -0.50). Limited by a small sample size, the preliminary result suggested that further investigation might provide an insight to health care professionals whether ToL is applicable and effective to the local communities.
