University of Twente Student Theses

Focusing on the whole person in continued care for SUD-patients. The acceptability and possible impact on wellbeing of an ACT-based after-care intervention in people previously treated for substance use disorder.

Jongejan, I.K. (2017) Focusing on the whole person in continued care for SUD-patients. The acceptability and possible impact on wellbeing of an ACT-based after-care intervention in people previously treated for substance use disorder.

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Abstract:	To prevent relapse, an ACT-based after-care intervention was developed, in which patients were taught to cope with aversive thoughts and feelings and to explore their values. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of people previously treated for Substance Use Disorder (SUD) with the intervention ‘Living to the Full’ and to assess its possible impact on their wellbeing, depression symptoms and relapse into substance use. The respondents were 8 Dutch adults who had received previous psychological SUD-treatment at Tactus, an addiction care institute in The Netherlands. Results showed that the intervention was well accepted by the respondents and considered as proper after-care for SUD. The main reason for this was that the intervention focused on the person as a whole rather than solely focusing on substance use. Relapse was prevented in six out of seven respondents during the intervention. Respondents noticed changes in their coping with craving-related thoughts. Overall- social- and psychological wellbeing significantly improved, which was confirmed by respondents’ experience. Finally, the change in depression symptoms showed a clear trend towards significance and respondents did report relieve of depression symptoms.Conclusion. The ACT-based after-care intervention ‘Living to the Full’ seems to be promising after-care for SUD-patients as it was accepted well by the respondents, constituted significant change in their wellbeing and relieved depression symptoms. Nearly all respondents did not relapse during the after-care. Future research should be done to confirm the findings of this pilot-study.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Clients:	Tactus Verslavingszorg, The Netherlands
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	77 psychology
Programme:	Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73648
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