Abstract
This program manual provides a clear and practical approach to the application of coping skills in a clinical context. The program was developed in a psychiatric in-patient department in a busy academic general hospital. It became an essential part of the treatment plan for psychiatric in-patients and also in the General Psychiatry Day Hospital program. The manual sets out a comprehensive guide to Skills-Based Psycho-educational Therapy (SBPT) as an essential part of an integrated health care strategy. The authors, who have decades of experience in psychiatry, provide a manual-based program with ready to use learning plans, handouts, and worksheets all with built-in outcome measures.
The 30 modules cover strategies from 4 coping categories: health and wellbeing (balanced routines), changing one’s situation (goal setting, time management, assertiveness), changing the body’s response to stress (symptoms of stress, relaxation, mindfulness, distress tolerance), and changing one’s attitude (reframe negative thinking, affirmations). The content is derived from well-researched practices of cognitive behaviour therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, mindfulness, and behaviour activation, with an emphasis on application to engagement in meaningful daily activities.
What is truly unique about this program manual is that all training is delivered using proven process methods from Saint Francis Xavier University’s adult learning program, which incorporates Kolb’s Adult Learning Model. Learning of new knowledge, skills, or attitudes is evaluated within the session, making their transfer to the person’s community/work/home environment much more likely.
The program manual’s modules and handouts are logically sequenced, well referenced, and support both the content and the experiential learning design. The modules are set up to run as 1 hour group sessions but are easily adapted to individual work, giving flexibility to the time commitment. Efficiency in practice is met, because structured learning themes are at the practitioner’s fingertips and the process followed cements integration of the learning. Though many topics are covered, there is room for further topic development, such as sleep hygiene or healthy boundaries, set up in similar module format.
Coping strategies training is an essential part of patient recovery, because it helps them engage in their meaningful activities of every day. Skills-Based Psycho-educational Therapy (SBPT) is a practical and useful approach. The training modules in this program manual and the printout available on the accompanying USB emphasize the client taking control, making choices, and taking responsibility to manage their health and engage in daily life.
I have had the good fortune to have worked in a setting where SBPT has been used in an inpatient and day hospital setting. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in these aspects of patient care.