2. REFERENTES TEÓRICOS
3.4 Población y Muestra
The Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors (PEARLS) is a manualized, home-based outreach program. It is effective in treating late-life minor depression and dysthymia when provided in residential settings. Trained social workers provide eight sessions of problem solving treatment (PST) in conjunction with increasing participation in pleasant events.
Description of Intervention
Although higher rates of depression exist among medically ill, socially isolated, homebound, or functionally impaired older adults, these characteristics may also lead to inadequate recognition and treatment of depression. The Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors (PEARLS) addresses these issues. PEARLS is an outreach program that was developed in Seattle, Washington. Trained social workers deliver the PEARLS intervention in the older adult’s home during eight 50-minute sessions that occur over a 19-week period. The first two sessions occur weekly, the second two sessions occur every other week, and the final four sessions occur every fourth week. Practitioners use three depression
management techniques:
n problem solving treatment, in which the older adult is taught to recognize depressive symptoms, define problems that may contribute to depression, and devise steps to solve these problems;
n social and physical activation, in which the older adult is assisted in developing a program of social, recreational, and physical activities; and
n pleasant activity scheduling, in which the older adult is encouraged to engage in a pleasant activity (i.e., gardening, reading a magazine, taking photographs).
Counselors encourage participants to use existing community services and attend local events. They also work with a psychiatrist to provide potential recommendations to the older adult’s primary care physician regarding the use of antidepressant medications.
Practitioners
n PEARLS treatment is provided by master’s level social workers.
n Collaboration occurs between the social workers, a psychiatrist, and the older adults’ primary care practitioner.
n Social workers carry 3 to 8 active cases. For cases lacking continued improvement after 4 to 5 sessions, the psychiatrist contacts the older adults’ primary care practitioner to recommend initiating or adjusting antidepressants and to assess potential physical health, prescription medication, or substance abuse causes for depressive symptoms.
Diagnoses or Disorders Addressed n Minor Depression
Evidence and Outcomes
The PEARLS outreach model was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (Ciechanowski and colleagues, 2004).
Compared to older adults receiving usual care, after one year PEARLS participants were: n more likely to have at least a 50% reduction
in symptoms (43% vs. 15%),
n more likely to achieve complete remission from depression (36% vs. 12%), and
n more likely to report greater improvements in functional and emotional well-being. A greater number of older adults participating in the PEARLS intervention received psychotherapy or antidepressant medications for depression, compared to those receiving usual care.
Settings of Research n Home
n Urban and suburban settings
Populations Included in Research
n Study participants were aged 60 and older and were receiving home-based services from senior service agencies or living in senior public housing. Many participants were medically ill and had low incomes. Most were homebound. n 79 percent were female.
n 58 percent of participants were Caucasian, 36 percent were African American, 4 percent were Asian American, 1 percent were American Indians or Alaska Natives, and 1 percent were Latino.
Training and Resources Available
Manual Availability
The PEARLS Implementation Toolkit offers detailed information on recruitment and screening, conducting PEARLS sessions, PST, data
management, and clinical supervision.
n University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center. (2007). PEARLS
Implementation Toolkit. Seattle, WA. http://depts.washington.edu/pearlspr/
Information for Older Adults
Some information in the PEARLS toolkit (i.e., an overview of depression symptoms and treatment) is designed for the PEARLS counselor to share with older adults.
Training and Technical Assistance
In-person training is available on an as-needed basis, and limited guidance and suggestions for program adaptation are available for PST.
Fidelity Measure
Quality assurance forms for the PEARLS program are provided by the program developers to assist supervisors in monitoring implementation fidelity. A fidelity measure is being developed for a CDC- funded dissemination research study.
Replications and Adaptations
PEARLS has been implemented in the Seattle, Washington area through two local agencies, Aging and Disability Services and Senior Services of Seattle/King County. It also will be implemented in the Spokane, Washington area by the local AAA
To date, the program has not been adapted for use with other populations of older adults.
Key Issues Related to Implementation
Financing: The cost to implement PEARLS is about $630 per patient. This estimate is based on mean costs in the 2000-2003 study, which included problem solving treatment sessions ($422), follow- up and psychiatric telephone calls ($40),
psychotherapy quality assurance ($87), and depression management team sessions ($81). PEARLS can be disseminated within community organizations that provide care for isolated, low- income older adults. Depression management can be added to existing case management services. Most social service agencies have mental health consultants who could provide oversight and quality assurance of case managers who are trained to provide PEARLS. Consultants could also deliver targeted brief telephone communication with physicians and with older adults with more severe or complex depression.
Barriers to implementation may include the lack of training infrastructure and the challenges of recruiting older adults with depression.
Program Contact Information Sheryl Schwartz, M.P.A.
Deputy Director
Health Promotion Research Center University of Washington 1107 NE 45th Street, Suite 200 Seattle, WA 98105 Phone: (206) 685-7258 Fax: (206) 543-8841 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: http://depts.washington.edu/hprc/ http://depts.washington.edu/pearlspr/
References
National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices.
Comparison to a control group
Ciechanowski, P., Wagner, E., Schmaling, K., et al. (2004). Community-integrated home-based depression treatment for older adults. Journal of the American Medical Association, 291(13), 1569–1577.
Other relevant references
Ciechanowski, P., & Schwartz, S. (2004, February 19). PEARLS: Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors. Presented at the 18th National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Washington, DC. Lakey, S. L., Gray, S. L., Ciechanowski, P.,
Schwartz, S., & Logerfo, J. (2008).
Antidepressant use in nonmajor depression: Secondary analysis of a program to encourage active, rewarding lives for seniors (PEARLS), a randomized controlled trial in older adults from 2000 to 2003. American Journal of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy, 6(1), 12–20.
Schmaling, K. B., Williams, B., Schwartz, C., Ciechanowski, P., & LoGerfo, J. (2008). The content of behavior therapy for depression demonstrates few associations with treatment outcome among low-income, medically ill older adults. Behavior Therapy, Available online April 20, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2007.10.004. Schwartz, S. J. (2000, November). The PEARLS
study: Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors. Report presented at the 15th National Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Washington, DC.