Legacy Interventions With Patients with Co-Occurring Disorders: Legacy Definitions, Life Satisfaction, and...

Individuals with co-occurring disorders tend to avoid interaction with others. To instill hope, legacy intervention aims to highlight past experiences while managing life stressors for a positive outlook. Participants take part in legacy activities-crafting tangible projects and recording one's life events-in order to actualize a personal sense of legacy.

This pre-posttest research tested whether legacy intervention in a partial hospital program (PHP) on reframing past experiences through creative activities could increase life satisfaction and self-efficacy among adults with co-occurring substance misuse and mental health symptoms.

Eighty consented patients with co-occurring disorders were randomly assigned to two groups with 62 participants continuing: 37 in legacy intervention (LI) and 25 in partial hospital program only (PHP-only). LI participants were engaged in both PHP and legacy activities. Ten group sessions were held over the course of five weeks for cohorts of 10-15 adult patients in each intervention. Sense of legacy was measured to ensure that LI patients received the appropriate legacy dosage.

With RANOVA analyses between and among three time points, life satisfaction was significantly higher in the LI group with group interaction effect over time. In terms of self-efficacy, both groups showed positive changes but no significant difference could be found between the two groups over time and the interaction (time X group) effect was not significant.

The legacy definitions gathered from the LI group were consistent with existing literature and showed three additional themes: children's involvement, concreteness, and life continuation after death.