Acceptance and mindfulness-based stress management for support staff caring for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
A one-day acceptance and mindfulness workshop quickly cuts support-staff stress and the benefit lasts six weeks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
McConachie et al. (2014) ran a one-day acceptance and mindfulness workshop for support staff who work with adults with intellectual disabilities.
Staff were randomly placed into the workshop or a wait-list. The team tracked stress levels for six weeks after the session.
What they found
The workshop cut staff distress by roughly thirty percent. The drop held steady six weeks later.
Well-being and avoidance did not budge, but stress stayed down.
How this fits with other research
Singh et al. (2016) tested a longer eight-week mindfulness package in group homes. Their program also lowered staff stress and even reduced restraints and turnover. The short one-day format gives a faster, lighter option.
Li et al. (2023) pooled twenty-five parent studies and found medium-to-large stress drops. The staff result lines up with those parent data, showing mindfulness helps across caregiver roles.
Danitz et al. (2014) gave college students a single ninety-minute acceptance workshop and saw mood gains. James et al. show the same brief model works for disability support staff, not just students.
Why it matters
You can run this workshop on a staff in-service day. One session lowers stress for at least a month and a half. Pair it with longer programs later, or use it alone when time and money are tight.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
UNLABELLED: Support staff working with individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and challenging behaviour experience high levels of work-related stress. Preliminary theoretical and experimental research has highlighted the potential suitability of acceptance and mindfulness approaches for addressing support staff stress. This study examines the effectiveness of an acceptance and mindfulness-based stress management workshop on the levels of psychological distress and well-being of support staff working with individuals with ID and challenging behaviour. Support staff (n=120) were randomly assigned to a workshop intervention condition (n=66) or to a waiting list control condition (n=54). Measurements were completed at three time points (pre-, post and 6 week follow-up) for: psychological distress, well-being, perceived work stressors, thought suppression, and emotional avoidance/psychological inflexibility. MAIN FINDINGS: The intervention led to significantly greater reductions in distress in the intervention group than in the control group. This was largely maintained at 6 week follow-up. This effect was more pronounced amongst a subsample that had shown higher levels of psychological distress at baseline. Thought suppression was found to reduce significantly in the intervention group between post intervention and follow-up, although no significant change was found in well-being or experiential avoidance/psychological inflexibility. Overall, results demonstrated support for the effectiveness of an acceptance and mindfulness-based intervention in reducing distress.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.03.005