• J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2025

    Clinician Perspectives Highlight the Need for Early Dyadic Coping Skills for People Living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

    • Christina L Rush, Chris Lyons, Jenna Gittle, Morgan Seward, Jennifer Scalia, Doreen Ho, Suma Babu, Mark A Garret, Kate Brizzi, James D Berry, Maurizio Fava, Elizabeth Lindenberger, Ana-Maria Vranceanu, and Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS Resilient Together-ALS (RT-ALS) Team.
    • Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (C.L.R., C.L., J.G., M.S., A.M.V.), Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Electronic address: crush2@mgh.harvard.edu.
    • J Pain Symptom Manage. 2025 Mar 1; 69 (3): 236242.e4236-242.e4.

    ContextA diagnosis of ALS can be challenging, and many people find ways to adapt. At the same time, emotional distress can arise early after an ALS diagnosis even when high quality multidisciplinary care is provided. When emotional distress occurs, it can become chronic over time, and can affect both the person living with ALS and their care-partner (together called a dyad).ObjectivesWe set out to understand ALS multidisciplinary clinicians' perception of the challenges experienced by people with ALS and care-partners who experience emotional distress after diagnosis and potential benefits of a coping skills program to help these patients and their care-partners, Resilient Together-ALS (RT-ALS).MethodsWe conducted semi-structured focus groups and individual interviews with 17 clinicians at the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at MGH (N = 2 focus groups and five interviews) to elicit feedback on four domains: 1) Psychosocial Needs of ALS Dyads seen in the clinic; 2) Clinic Flow and Referral System to RT-ALS; 3) Clinic Partnership Approach in Support of RT-ALS; 4) RT-ALS Program Content and Manual Format. We conducted rapid data analyses for a time-efficient hybrid inductive-deductive thematic approach.ResultsClinicians noted that dyadic distress (distress experienced by both patient and their care-partner individually and as a unit), though not universal, is often present early after diagnosis. The response to the proposed program content (dyadic and individual coping skills) and structure (6 weekly virtual sessions delivered within about 2 months after diagnosis) was positive. Multidisciplinary clinicians emphasized the importance of a skills-based program for dyads experiencing elevated early emotional distress for which referral can be easily integrated within clinic flow so as not to not increase provider and dyad burden.ConclusionRT-ALS program content and structure is acceptable to clinicians. It is imperative to next seek further input from dyads about whether this type of program would be of interest and if yes, to pilot and refine the program for feasibility testing and then efficacy.Copyright © 2024 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. All rights reserved.

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