Group therapy for family caregivers of PWD at risk for complicated grief: A feasibility and efficacy analysis of pre‐loss group therapy

Background Our previous evaluation of Complicated Grief Group Therapy (CGGT) in bereaved dementia family caregivers demonstrated efficacy and identified intervention elements suitable for adaption into a preventative care approach. Method We adapted CGGT treatment elements into a manualized 10 session pre‐loss group psychotherapy—Pre‐Loss Group Therapy (PLGT)—for dementia caregivers at risk for Complicated Grief (CG). We implemented and evaluated three PLGT cohorts in three long‐term care facilities with family caregivers at‐risk for CG whose care recipient had a life expectancy of 6 months or less and resided in a long‐term care facility (NT = 24). Result Evaluation of participant preparedness for the death of the person with dementia (PWD), self‐care and grief outcomes showed significant improvement across domains between pre and post‐group. Notably, there was a statistically significant decrease in grief as measured by the Inventory of Complicated Grief score from baseline (M = 25.67, SE=1.80) to post‐group (M = 14.41, SE=1.65) t(21)= 6.280, p