SPARK Resilience in the workplace: Effectiveness of a brief online resilience intervention during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Science asserts that resilience at work can be developed, with evidence pinpointing to multiple resources that can be built through deliberate coaching, training and interventions. This paper presents a mixed-methods study exploring the effectiveness of group coaching using SPARK Resilience training, a model and a structured coaching protocol that have been administered in educational and workplace settings in face-to-face format and remotely. The study used a non-randomised controlled design with a pre-test and a post-test in a sample of French adults (N = 101 in the intervention group and N = 86 in the waitlist control group). The SPARK Resilience programme was administered online with 8 sessions spanning 4 weeks in April 2020, during the very early stage of the pandemic and lockdown in France. The results indicate beneficial effects of the intervention on meaning, resilience, positive affect, and perceived stress outcomes (d in the .40-.56 range), as well as weaker effects on negative affect (d = .35) and work engagement (d = .21). Moderator analyses suggest that the effects of the intervention on perceived stress and negative affect tended to be stronger for older adults. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention and provided 151 responses to three open-ended questions that were coded using thematic analysis, revealing specific benefits of the intervention. The findings are interpreted within the pandemic context, showing the way resilience interventions can help people overcome unprecedented challenges.

Feeling Good Despite EDS: The Effects of a 5-Week Online Positive Psychology Programme for Ehlers-Danlos-Syndromes Patients.

Ehlers-Danlos-Syndromes (EDS) is a group of hereditary, chronic and potentially disabling conditions. Few studies have tested the effects of psychological interventions to increase well-being in this population. We hypothesized that Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI), first applied to healthy and mentally ill subjects, can also be useful for people with somatic conditions and conducted a study to evaluate the efficacy of a 5-week online PPI designed to improve well-being in EDS patients. A sample of 132 EDS patients were allocated to three groups: assigned PPI, self-selected PPI, and waitlist control-group (WLC). Measures of positive and negative affect, pain disability, fatigue, and life satisfaction were administered before program start, 6 weeks later, and 1 month later. Satisfaction with the program was also evaluated. The results revealed that participants in the self-selected PPI-group, but not in the assigned PPI group, reported significantly lower levels of fatigue and higher levels of positive affect and life satisfaction compared to WLC after 6 weeks. There were no effects on negative affect and pain disability measures. Finally, 77% of the participants were satisfied or very satisfied with the program. These findings confirm and extend previous research by showing the efficacy of PPI for people with chronic illness under the condition that individuals can choose the program content. From a healthcare perspective, online PPIs could complement treatments aimed at symptom reduction and increase well-being in patients with EDS.

Predictors of pain and mobility disability in the hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Aim: Among the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, the hypermobile subtype (hEDS) is the most common. The variety, accumulation and duration of the painful symptoms make hEDS a chronic and highly disabling condition. Identifying drivers of pain and mobility disability in hEDS is necessary to provide adapted prevention and intervention programs.Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 75 adults with hEDS according to Villefranche criteria (67 women; 36 years, SD = 11.2) responded to self-assessment questionnaires regarding psychological (negative thoughts and emotions), health (pain, fatigue, diagnostic delay, body mass index, and mobility disability) and socio-demographic variables.Results: Forty-three percent of the participants suffer from severe pain, and two thirds suffer from a high level of mobility disability. Multivariate analyses show that delay of diagnosis, being professionally active and thoughts of helplessness are variables that increase the likelihood of severe pain, whereas age, fatigue, and body mass index predict mobility disability.Conclusion: These results confirm previous research concerning the high disease burden observed in hEDS patients, and highlight the importance of multidisciplinary management that includes nutritional and psychological advice to address this pathology. Increasing awareness of the clinical aspects of hEDS among physicians is necessary to reduce diagnostic delay and minimize negatives outcomes.Implications for RehabilitationA high proportion of patients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome suffer from severe pain (>42%) and a high level of mobility disability (>65%).Different psychosocial and health variables predict pain and mobility disability in patients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.Awareness concerning the clinical picture of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome among health care professionals is necessary to reduce diagnosis delay and the burden of the disease.