Leo program, a short multi-family skill-based psychoeducational program for caregivers of relatives living with a severe mental disorder: a retrospective pilot study

BackgroundCaring for a relative with a severe mental disorder (SMD) is associated with high levels of burden and poor physical and mental health. There is a dire need for family psychoeducational programs that can be provided as early as possible. This manuscript describes the pilot testing of “Leo” a motivational-based psychoeducational program for caregivers of individuals with a SMD. The Leo program aims to provide caregivers with skills to best support their relative and to adopt self-care behaviors.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed medical records of caregivers who enrolled in a short, multi-family, skill-based psychoeducational program, consisting of eight 3-hour sessions over 8 weeks. Outcomes of interest included: i) adherence to the program, ii) satisfaction and perceived usefulness, and iii) pre-post changes in self-reported levels of depression (CES-D), burden (ZBI), and skills (10 Likert-scaled items). A network analysis was used to investigate the relationships between pre-post changes in self-evaluated skills and pre-post changes in burden and depression levels.ResultsOver the 91 enrolled participants, 87 (95.6%) completed the program attending at least 5/8 sessions, 80.5% attending all sessions. Seventy-six caregivers fulfilled the questionnaires at baseline and after the program, and were included in the analysis. Although there was no evidence for significant change in self-reported depression levels (Cohen’s d=0.19, p=0.210), burden scores and all evaluated skills were improved post-intervention, with medium to strong effect size (Cohen’s ds from 0.47 to 0.87; p<0.001). Network output indicated that increased self-evaluated competence in 5 skills were associated with a global improvement in caregivers’ burden and/or depression scores. Post-intervention, 89.7% of caregivers were “very satisfied” and 82.1% found the program “extremely useful”.ConclusionThis pilot retrospective study shows high levels of satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and adherence to “Leo”, a short, multi-family, skill-based psychoeducational program with promising results in improving caregivers’ burden, self-evaluated competence in coping with caregiving demands and in self-care behaviors. This study provides preliminary insights into the mechanisms by which family psychoeducation might alleviate burden of care. A larger-scaled, controlled, randomized study with follow-up assessments is warranted to determine how burden, depression, and skills, as well as their inter-relationships, evolve over time

Leo program, a short multi-family skill-based psychoeducational program for caregivers of relatives living with a severe mental disorder: a retrospective pilot study

International audienceCopyright © 2024 Lespine, de Martène, Zeltner, Chenu, Berbey and Rey.Background: Caring for a relative with a severe mental disorder (SMD) is associated with high levels of burden and poor physical and mental health. There is a dire need for family psychoeducational programs that can be provided as early as possible. This manuscript describes the pilot testing of u201cLeou201d a motivational-based psychoeducational program for caregivers of individuals with a SMD. The Leo program aims to provide caregivers with skills to best support their relative and to adopt self-care behaviors. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of caregivers who enrolled in a short, multi-family, skill-based psychoeducational program, consisting of eight 3-hour sessions over 8 weeks. Outcomes of interest included: i) adherence to the program, ii) satisfaction and perceived usefulness, and iii) pre-post changes in self-reported levels of depression (CES-D), burden (ZBI), and skills (10 Likert-scaled items). A network analysis was used to investigate the relationships between pre-post changes in self-evaluated skills and pre-post changes in burden and depression levels. Results: Over the 91 enrolled participants, 87 (95.6%) completed the program attending at least 5/8 sessions, 80.5% attending all sessions. Seventy-six caregivers fulfilled the questionnaires at baseline and after the program, and were included in the analysis. Although there was no evidence for significant change in self-reported depression levels (Cohenu2019s d=0.19, p=0.210), burden scores and all evaluated skills were improved post-intervention, with medium to strong effect size (Cohenu2019s ds from 0.47 to 0.87; p<0.001). Network output indicated that increased self-evaluated competence in 5 skills were associated with a global improvement in caregiversu2019 burden and/or depression scores. Post-intervention, 89.7% of caregivers were u201cvery satisfiedu201d and 82.1% found the program u201cextremely usefulu201d. Conclusion: This pilot retrospective study shows high levels of satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and adherence to u201cLeou201d, a short, multi-family, skill-based psychoeducational program with promising results in improving caregiversu2019 burden, self-evaluated competence in coping with caregiving demands and in self-care behaviors. This study provides preliminary insights into the mechanisms by which family psychoeducation might alleviate burden of care. A larger-scaled, controlled, randomized study with follow-up assessments is warranted to determine how burden, depression, and skills, as well as their inter-relationships, evolve over time

Similar specific mineralization rates of organic carbon and nitrogen in incubated soils under contrasted arable cropping systems

International audienceNo tillage is often thought to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural land by increasing soil carbon storage, because of a reduced mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (SON). Regrettably, most available references on this topic come from laboratory incubations of disrupted soil from superficial soil layer. Here, we compare SOC and SON mineralization rates in the long-term experiment of La Cage (France) under conventional (CON), low input (LI), conservation agriculture (CA) or organic (ORG) management. Disturbed soil samples from the 0-27 cm soil layer of all treatments were laboratory incubated for four months, while undisturbed CON and CA soil cores were incubated to account for tillage effects. Physical disturbance decreased SOC and SON mineralization. Model fitting showed that the size of the C labile pool and the C and N mineralization rates of the slow pool were 1.5-2.3-fold greater in undisturbed soil cores than in disturbed ones, which may be due to a higher abundance of labile SOC (e.g. plant residues) in undisturbed soil cores. All cropping systems exhibited similar specific rate of mineralization, expressed per unit of SOC, SON or microbial biomass C, both for disturbed and undisturbed soils. Similar mineralization in CA and CON undisturbed soil cores may result from the balance between higher amount of labile OM and less favourable soil structure for decomposition in CA. Similar mineralization rates in disturbed soil cores suggest that OM decomposability and environmental conditions for decomposers were similar between cropping systems. Overall, these results confirmed the hypothesis previously made in silica to explain the differences in SOC storage in this experiment (Autret a al., 2016). Our results together with the increased SOC stocks observed in CA and ORG treatments suggest that increased biomass returns to soil or changes in microbial physiology may be the main drivers of SOC storage

Similar mineralization rates of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in different alternative arable cropping systems

Similar mineralization rates of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in different alternative arable cropping systems. EGU 2018, European Geophysical Union General Assembly 201

Agricultural practices that store organic carbon in soils: is it only a matter of inputs ?

Increasing the world soils carbon stocks by a factor of 4 per mil annually would compensate the annual net increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. This statement is the core of an initiative launched by the French government at the recent COP21, followed by many countries and international bodies, which attracts political attention to the storage potential of C in soils. Compared to forest and pasture soils, agricultural soils have a higher C storage potential, because they are often characterized by low C contents, and increasing their C content is associated with benefits in terms of soil properties and ecosystem services. Here we quantified, under temperate conditions, the additional C storage related to the implementation of two set of practices that are recognized to be in the framework of agroecology: conservation tillage on the one hand and agroforestry on the other hand. These studies were based on long-term experiments, a 16-years comparison on cropping systems on luvisols in the Paris area and a 18-year-old silvoarable agroforestry trial, on fluvisols in southern France, the main crops being cereals in both cases. C stocks were measured on an equivalent soil mass basis. Both systems allowed for a net storage of C in soils, which are, for the equivalent of the 0-30 cm tilled layer, of 0.55 ± 0.16 t ha‑ 1 yr‑ 1 for conservation agriculture (i.e. no tillage with permanent soil coverage with an associated plant, fescue or alfalfa) and of 0.25 ± 0.03 t ha-1 yr-1 for the agroforestry system. These results are in line with estimates proposed in a recent French national assessment concerning the potential of agricultural practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to recent literature, they further show that practices that increase C inputs to soil through additional biomass production would be more effective to store C in soil (tree rows, cover crops in conservation agriculture) than practices, such as no-tillage, that are assumed to reduce soil organic matter mineralisation rates. This questions our understanding of the stabilization processes of organic matter in soils and especially that of physical protection. The conditions and scale, both spatial and temporal, of physical protection of organic matter are discussed in light of recent literature

Agricultural practices to increase carbon storage in soils: is it only a matter of inputs ?

CT3 ; EnjS4 ; Département EAAgricultural practices to increase carbon storage in soils: is it only a matter of inputs ?. EcoSummit 2016. Ecological Sustainability: Engineering Chang

Право и демократия, № 17

Alternative cropping systems such as conservation agriculture and organic farming are expected to decrease negative impacts of conventional systems through sequestration of organic carbon in soil and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. We studied soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics in the long-term (16 years) field experiment “La Cage” (France) which compares four arable cropping systems, free from manure application, under conventional (CON), low input (LI), conservation agriculture (CA) and organic (ORG) management. Bulk densities and SOC concentrations were measured at different dates between 1998 and 2014. SOC stocks were calculated at equivalent soil mass taking into account bulk density variations and SOC redistribution across the different soil layers. We analyzed the evolution of SOC stocks and compared it with outputs of the simulation model AMG. The rate of change in SOC stocks in the old ploughed layer (ca. 0–30 cm) during the 16 years was 0.08, 0.02, 0.63 and 0.28 t ha−1 yr−1 in the CON, LI, CA and ORG systems respectively and significantly differed from 0 in the CA and ORG treatments. The AMG model satisfactorily reproduced the observed evolution of SOC stocks in the old ploughed layer in all treatments. A Bayesian optimization procedure was used to assess the mean and the distribution of the most uncertain parameters: the SOC mineralization rate and the C inputs derived from belowground biomass of cover crops which were fescue (Festuca rubra) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa). The model thus parameterized was able to predict SOC evolution in each block and soil layer (0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm). There was no significant difference in SOC mineralization rates between all cropping systems including CA under no-till. In particular, the increased SOC storage in CA was explained by higher carbon inputs compared to the other cropping systems (+1.72 t C ha−1 yr−1 on average). The CA and ORG systems were less productive than the CON and LI systems but the smaller C inputs derived from cash crop residues were compensated by the extra inputs from additional crops (fescue and alfalfa) specifically grown in CA and ORG, resulting in a positive carbon storage in soil. We conclude that alternative arable systems have potential to sequester organic carbon in temperate climate conditions, through higher carbon input rather than by the effect of reduced soil tillage