A pilot study of a group Mindfulness-based intervention for Tamaki Health patients

A pilot study of a group face-to-face Mindfulness intervention to assist participants to manage a range of physical and mental health issues. The Mindfulness intervention (Aotearoa Mindfulness and Awareness (AMA) Programme) is based in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programmes, and has been run by Tamaki Health in Auckland for the past 7 years. The programme will be delivered in 6 x 2.5 hour sessions across 6 weeks at various locations across Auckland. The study will involve 50-100 participants. The programme will be administered by mindfulness trained therapists (facilitators) who have received substantial training in both mental health and in the Mindfulness intervention. The Mindfulness sessions are summarised below: 1. Introduction of facilitator, session structure, introduction to mindfulness, centering breath and mindful eating 2. Mindfulness in daily life, chair yoga, walking meditation 3. Resilience, body scan meditation 4. Coping with grief, self-compassion, open heart meditation, loving-kindness meditation 5. Assertive communication, mindful listening, 6. Mindful life and action planning, mindfulness practices (decided by participants) The group members will be encouraged to complete all sessions but are able to withdraw consent to participate at any time. Successful completion will be considered attendance at 5 out of the 6 sessions. A register will be maintained noting attendance or absence. Brief homework exercises will be provided for completion between sessions based on guided meditation exercises sent via MP3 links or on a CD according to the participant’s preference. These exercises have been developed specifically for the AMA programme and comprise mindfulness tasks ranging from 3 minutes (the breathing space meditation) to 28 minutes (the body scan meditation). The suggested duration of homework practice for participants is: 15 minutes per day in Week 1, 30 minutes per day in Week 2, and 30-45 minutes per day for the remainder of the course and after its completion. There will be no formal monitoring of adherence to homework practice. The duration of practice sessions are suggestions only; completion of homework practice is ultimately up to participants to self-monitor. Workbooks and handouts will be given to participants with the content of each session and reminders of the techniques they have learnt for their ongoing home-based practices. All materials used in the course, including workbooks and handouts, are provided to all AMA course participants, and their provision is not reliant on them taking part in the research study. These materials have been developed specifically for the AMA course by Tamaki Health over the 7 years it has been run and are only available to AMA course participants. Ten participants taking part in the research study will also be invited to take part in a telephone interview so that the researchers can ask about participants’ experience of taking part in the AMA course. Participants can agree on the Consent Form whether they would like to take part in an interview. Interview participants will be randomly selected from all study participants who commence the AMA course and who have agreed to take part in an interview, including those who did not complete the course. The randomisation process and the conduct of the interviews will be undertaken by the study's principal investigator, who does not have any involvement in the facilitation of the AMA course. Recruitment of interviewees will continue until ten interviews have been conducted. The interview will be audio-recorded and transcribed.