Spiers, Johanna and Smith, Jonathan A. and Ferrer-Duch, M. and Moldovan, R. and Roche, J. and Macleod, R. (2020) Evaluating a genetic counselling narrative group session for people who have tested mutation positive for the Huntington’s Disease expansion: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Journal of Genetic Counseling 29 (6), pp. 1015-1025. ISSN 1059-7700.
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Abstract
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterised by motor problems, cognitive impairment and mood disturbances. Given the emotional elements of both HD itself and the testing process for it, psychological interventions may be helpful for those families impacted by HD. A stand-alone genetic counselling narrative group has been offered by one regional genetics clinic in the north of England to support people’s coping following predictive genetic testing for HD. Groups are held 4-5 times per year with patients attending a group on a single occasion. This study assessed participants’ experiences of attending a group using the qualitative method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Telephone interviews were conducted with 12 people who had a mutation positive HD predictive test result and who had taken part in a genetic counselling narrative group session between November 2017 and February 2018. Participants were asked about their experiences of the group and any impact it had had on their lives. Four themes emerged: ‘The power of the group, ‘Active elements of the narrative exercise’, ‘Subsequent impact of the session’, and ‘Another voice’. Participants described the positive impact of being able to meet and empathise with others in a similar situation, the group’s positive impact on their mood and future outlook as well as its beneficial impact on disclosure. While most participants were positive about the session, the final theme presented the voices of two participants for whom the groups were poorly timed. Given the sessions’ generally positive impact, we recommend other centres consider offering people impacted by HD similar sessions.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | The final publication is available at Springer via the link above. |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Jonathan Smith |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Feb 2020 13:00 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:57 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/30736 |
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