Healing the Hidden Wounds: Intervening the Atypical Social and Emotional Growth in Caregivers of Drug Addicts

Abstract

Caregivers with drug addicted loved one are at verge of psychophysiological illnesses associated with decline of their social and emotional wellbeing. The Quality of Life Therapy Intervention was hypothesized to help address these challenges and ensure caregivers’ healthy social-emotional development. It is based on CASIO model. Efficacy of intervention was determined on the sample of drug addicts’ caregivers (N = 20; M _age = 38.80) through assessment of caregiver burden in a pre-post intervention research design. Qualitative feedback highlight decrease in caregiver burden. Results of paired sample t-test also demonstrate significant (p < .01) reduction in post-intervention data for caregiver burden underlying aspects such as social life, meeting household responsibilities, financial, physical, and emotional burden. Effect size also show moderate strength of difference (d = 0.64) among pre- and post-intervention. Study highlight effectiveness of intervention in decreasing level of caregiver burden and thus improving the social-emotional wellbeing. A larger sample is apprehended to generalize findings.