Meaning-Centered Men's Groups: Initial Findings of an Intervention to Enhance Resiliency and Reduce Suicide Risk in Men Facing Retirement.

Objectives: To assess the preliminary effectiveness of Meaning-Centered Men's Groups (MCMG), a 12-session existentially-oriented, community-based, psychological group intervention designed to enhance psychological resiliency and prevent the onset or exacerbation of suicide ideation among men who are concerned about or struggling with the transition to retirement.Methods: We recruited 30 men (n= 10 per group), 55 years and older (M= 63.7, SD= 4.1) from community settings to participate in a course of MCMG to be delivered in a community center. Participants completed eligibility, pre-, mid-, and post-group assessments of suicide ideation and psychological risk and resiliency factors.Results: Participants experienced significant increases in attitudinal sources of meaning in life, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, retirement satisfaction, and general health, and decreases in depression, hopelessness, loneliness, and suicide ideation.Conclusions: Preliminary findings suggest that MCMG is a novel men's mental health intervention that may help to enhance psychological well-being and potentially reduce the severity or prevent the onset of symptoms of depression, hopelessness, and suicide ideation.Clinical Implications: Upstream psychological interventions may serve an important role in mental health promotion and suicide prevention with potentially vulnerable individuals facing challenging life transitions.

Burnout and resilience in critical care nurses: A grounded theory of Managing Exposure.

BACKGROUND: Many critical care nurses experience burnout; however, resilience shows promise as a potential solution to burnout. This study was conducted to better understand nurse burnout and resilience in response to workplace adversity in critical care. DESIGN: A grounded theory investigation, using the Corbin and Strauss methodology. Participants engaged in qualitative, open-ended interviews about burnout and resilience. SETTING: A multi-site, urban, teaching hospital in Canada. PARTICIPANTS: 11 female critical care nurses, with 1-30+ years of critical care experience. FINDINGS: Burnout and resilience can be understood as indicators in a process of responding to workplace adversity. Workplace adversity can take many forms and has a negative impact on nurses. Nurses must be aware of this impact to take action. The process of Managing Exposure is how nurses address workplace adversity, using variety of techniques: protecting, processing, decontaminating, and distancing. The indicators of this process for nurses are thriving, resilience, survival and burnout. Organisational policies can impact on this process. CONCLUSIONS: Resilience and burnout are connected, as indicators of the same process for critical care nurses. Nurse leaders can intervene throughout this process to reduce workplace adversity and support resilience among nurses.

"I'm Still Here": Personhood and the Early-Onset Dementia Experience.

Early-onset dementia (EOD) occurs before age 65. The current study examined the lived experience from the point of view of four adults younger than 65 with dementia, particularly how they perceive their personhood. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis as the research approach, findings revealed that the EOD experience can be incorporated into six themes: (a) A Personal Journey, (b) Navigating the System, (c) The Stigma of Dementia, (d) Connecting to the World, (e) A Story Worth Telling, and (f) I'm Still Here. Participants' stories, as presented via these six thematic threads, reveal that individuals with EOD can have a strong sense of personhood. Findings are discussed and situated within the current EOD body of knowledge, and new knowledge is presented. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43 (5), 12-17.].

Exploring the experience of nursing home residents participation in a hope-focused group.

A qualitative intervention was used to explore how older adults living in a long-term care environment (nursing home) understand hope and experience being participants in a group in which a hope intervention was carried out. A group project in which each session focused intentionally on a hope strategy was carried out with a convenience sample of 10 women (ages 75-99) who were members of an existing group. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis of the interviews (conducted before the group intervention was carried out and again at the end), field notes, and collaborative conversations regarding emerging themes. Findings from this study suggest that hope is not static and that it can change over time in response to one's situations and circumstances. Also evident in this study is the potential for using a group process in long-term care to foster hope in an intentional way to make it more visible in the lives of the residents and their environment suggesting that one is "never too old for hope."

The experience of hope and aging: a hermeneutic photography study.

The purpose of this hermeneutic photography study was to explore how older adults lived hope in their day-to-day lives. A purposive sample of 12 older adults 65 and older was asked to photograph how they experienced and lived hope in their everyday lives. Participants were asked to select four to five photographs that best reflected their "lived hope," and these photographs were used as prompts for subsequent interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis of the interviews and photographs, which revealed that these study participants lived a philosophy of hope in which hope provided a kind of landscape through which these older adults lived and made sense of their life experiences. Implications for helping nurses foster and make hope more visible for their older clients are suggested.

Meaning in life: the perspective of long-term care residents.

A qualitative approach was used in the exploration of meaning in life for long-term care (LTC) residents. This hermeneutic phenomenological study, as described by van Manen, was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 11 LTC residents from a rural region in Atlantic Canada. Four themes emerged as enhancing meaning in life for the residents in this study: Connectedness, Survival Despite Declining Functional Capacity, Engaging in "Normal" Activities, and Seeking a Place of Refuge. In this article, we describe the emerging themes and the implications for LTC education, practice, and future research.

The quest for meaning in aging.

A qualitative research design using narrative interviews was used to explore how a group of older adults experienced meaning and purpose in their lives. In-depth interviews conducted with 11 older adults ranging in age from 66 to 92 years revealed 6 dimensions through which meaning is experienced and created. Through the sharing of their narrative life stories, these individuals described how meaning in their lives contributed to a sense of self that allowed them to embrace life with a sense of purpose and enthusiasm.