IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2021i1p79-d708686.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Family Connections”, a DBT-Based Program for Relatives of People with Borderline Personality Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Focus Group Study

Author

Listed:
  • Isabel Fernández-Felipe

    (Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón, Spain)

  • Amanda Díaz-García

    (Department of Psychology and Sociology, Universidad de Zaragoza, 44003 Teruel, Spain)

  • José Heliodoro Marco

    (Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológico, Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
    CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain)

  • Azucena García-Palacios

    (Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón, Spain
    CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain)

  • Verónica Guillén Botella

    (Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamiento Psicológico, Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
    CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CB06/03), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the family environment due to the difficulties that have been generated by job losses, deaths, increase rates of family and domestic violence, poor mental health outcomes, and estrangement in personal relationships. “Family Connections” (FC) is an internationally renowned DBT-based program that supports the families and caregivers of people with borderline personality disorder. The study took place at a Specialized Health Centre in Spain. A focus group with seven participants was organized for people who had previously attended an FC group. The participants were asked about their experiences during the confinement periods that was caused by COVID-19 as well as their experiences and opinions on relatives, skills practiced, their need to and the advantages of attending the group, and satisfaction with the FC group. The qualitative research web program Dedoose was used for the thematic analysis of the data. The results showed that the participants experienced various experiences during confinement; validation and radical acceptance were determined to be the most useful skills; the importance of professionals and the content as well as the sincerity of attendees and having a safe space were determined to be the greatest benefits of the programs; and the participants all indicated great satisfaction of the program. This study allowed us to explore the experiences of family members of people with BPD with their loved ones during the confinement period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the use of the FC program skills in the family environment during confinement, and we analyzed the acceptability and satisfaction with the FC program.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabel Fernández-Felipe & Amanda Díaz-García & José Heliodoro Marco & Azucena García-Palacios & Verónica Guillén Botella, 2021. "“Family Connections”, a DBT-Based Program for Relatives of People with Borderline Personality Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Focus Group Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-16, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:79-:d:708686
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/79/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/79/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noh, Samuel & Turner, R.Jay, 1987. "Living with psychiatric patients: Implications for the mental health of family members," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 263-272, January.
    2. Denise Meuldijk & Alexandra McCarthy & Marianne E Bourke & Brin F S Grenyer, 2017. "The value of psychological treatment for borderline personality disorder: Systematic review and cost offset analysis of economic evaluations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benson, Paul R. & Fisher, Gene A. & Diana, Augusto & Simon, Lorna & Gamache, Gail & Tessler, Richard C. & McDermeit, Melissa, 1996. "A state network of family support services: The massachusetts family support demonstration project," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 27-39, February.
    2. Antonio Taboada-Vázquez & Ruben Gonzalez-Rodriguez & Manuel Gandoy-Crego & Miguel Clemente, 2021. "Personality Variables as Predictors of Health Services Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-8, May.
    3. Margareta Östman & Tuula Wallsten & Lars Kjellin, 2005. "Family Burden and Relatives' Participation in Psychiatric Care: Are the Patient's Diagnosis and the Relation to the Patient of Importance?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 51(4), pages 291-301, December.
    4. Stansfeld, Stephen & Smuk, Melanie & Onwumere, Juliana & Clark, Charlotte & Pike, Cleo & McManus, Sally & Harris, Jenny & Bebbington, Paul, 2014. "Stressors and common mental disorder in informal carers – An analysis of the English Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2007," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 190-198.
    5. Julian Wlodarczyk & Sharon Lawn & Kathryn Powell & Gregory B. Crawford & Janne McMahon & Judy Burke & Lyn Woodforde & Martha Kent & Cate Howell & John Litt, 2018. "Exploring General Practitioners’ Views and Experiences of Providing Care to People with Borderline Personality Disorder in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study in Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-19, December.
    6. Margareta Ostman & Lars Hansson & Kristina Andersson, 2000. "Family Burden, Participation in Care and Mental Health - an 11-Year Comparison of the Situation of Relatives To Compulsorily and Voluntarily Admitted Patients," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 46(3), pages 191-200, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:79-:d:708686. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.