ORAL PRESENTATION

J. Beaulac, E. Sadeh

Self-compassion is a critical and often neglected component of well-being. It has been linked to improved happiness and life satisfaction, coping with chronic health conditions, reduced anxiety, depression, and risk for PTSD, and improved coping with caregiving. Families of patients experiencing psychosis face significant stressors as a result of caring for their family member. The objective for teaching self-compassion is to resource family members so that they experience improved wellbeing and are therefore better able to help their family member. This presentation will explore the process of implementing a self-compassion training program for family members of patients in an outpatient first episode psychosis clinic in 2018. This session will also teach you some simple techniques for increasing self-compassion and reducing stress in everyday life that you can teach to others and use yourself. The 4-session monthly program was adapted from Kristin Neff’s Mindful Self-Compassion Program and offered in addition to the existing weekly family education evenings. Family members completed measures on self-compassion, perceived stress, and socio-demographics, in addition to program satisfaction. Participants were encouraged to attend all 4-sessions but new participants could join at any time. Preliminary findings will be presented with a focus on implementation results and what these findings suggest for offering other similar programs. Feedback on this newly implemented family program has been uniformly positive and provides support for including self-compassion training as a regular component for caregivers.