TAILORING INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE THE OUTCOMES FOR REHAB PATIENTS

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It is considered  taboo in developing or under-developed countries to address psychological issues or even mental health for that matter. Although, it’s of utmost relevance in our society to admit patients in rehabilitation facilities to secure helpful treatments and a chance at better life ahead. The one recurrent issue with rehabilitation centres is that they go by the classic phrase ‘One size fits all’ for the interventions that they set up for people with similar disorders.It would be a better approach to tailor interventions on an individual basis to improve the outcomes for the rehab patients. The interventions can be based on a plethora of factors like individual genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle factors which will make the treatment more effective for the individual and it will contribute greatly to their future standing.  Due to the advancement in biotechnology, we have a new concept called precision medicine as a new approach to treatment in the healthcare sector. Precision medicine, also called as personalised medicine, is the medical treatment that considers factors like variability in an individual’s genes, lifestyle and their environment. In practice, clinicians may select or choose approaches that cater to the individual’s specific need or problem, instead of going by the manual. As we even watch in certain series or movies, mental health institutions have group therapy to let the patients indulge in a social setting and give them a sense of belonging to see that other people are also going through similar instances as them, but there’s also an individualistic approach to therapy wherein the patient is given the space to express what is going on with them to track progress and opt for different approaches if the previous aren’t fruitful. It is also relevant to study these factors as the interplay between them can play a huge role to progress what is already present. By identifying and addressing these factors, interventions can be set up to work through individual factors singularly or even interdependently. Apart from just setting up different or personalised interventions, it can also be helpful and valid to gauge the amount of sessions that would be required to do so and if and when the individual interventions should be applied. The idiographic approach, although being relevant, has been criticised for its lack of reliability and generalisability to patients across the given setting. From the other side of it, not only the patients but the clinicians or the practitioners also have a better intuition and perhaps a more suitable and efficient suggestion/treatment plan to provide to the patient. 


We have forever, in the field of psychology, had a nature vs. nurture debate, in regards to that, while designing any intervention for patients with psychological issues or disorders, we need to take heed of both of them together. Assessments for Genetic predisposition can be done to check which hereditary factors could be influencing mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, etc. Mostly, in cases of patients being registered in an Indian Rehabilitation facility have been brought there by their family, caregivers or friends, so a sense of hostility can be expected in their behaviour towards the therapist or the psychologist, so it would be suggestible to gauge the environment they grew up in or are currently exposed to through the people that brought them in. The drawback in that case would be that we can’t entirely trust the words of the caregivers as they could be potentially biased and restricted as well. A lot of current trends also aim at addressing the cultural context and background of a person, tailoring interventions factoring in cultural context does seem a tedious task but it can contribute a great deal. If we consider cultural context, certain people with a cultural background of open minded mentality might find it easier to open up and have more acceptance towards intervention strategies than the people who come from a narrow minded mentality. Coming towards lifestyle factors, with the current lifestyle that most of us are leading, it has become the most relevant factor which has contributed to a detrimental mental state, for example poor sleeping patterns, lack of nutrition, lethargy, no exercise, social interactions that we engage in. All of this can provide a great database for therapists or treatment providers to help set up strategies. Like we saw before, the individual factors have an interplay between them as well so it would also be effective to make the interventions with interdisciplinary collaboration where healthcare professionals can factor or help in designing a plan in terms of nutrition, physical health and so on. ‘Like every side has two coins, this strategy also has certain drawbacks. Given the condition of rehab facilities in India, it will be tough and mostly impossible to manage resources to carry out personalised interventions. On top of that, the clinicians or the therapists assigned to the case may also require specialised or additional training to treat a patient solely on an individual basis. Another factor and probably the most major one is that the patient may have very limited insight about his/her condition and the life that they have led so far and probably won’t be able to communicate it to the clinician that well. 


It would be effective and a better use of time and efforts to offer personalised interventions along with group activities to ensure maximum efficacy.


About the author: Khushali is a 2nd year B.Sc. Applied Psychology student who loves to be a goof, has a good sense of humour which some people find debatable. Apart from that, she is curious about dark themes and loves reading Russian philosophy. 


REFERENCES:

Stumpp, N. E., & Sauer-Zavala, S. (2022). Evidence-Based Strategies for Treatment Personalization: A review. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 29(4), 902–913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2021.10.004

Harnas, S. J., Knoop, H., Sprangers, M. a. G., & Braamse, A. M. (2024). Defining and operationalizing personalized psychological treatment – a systematic literature review. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 53(5), 467–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2024.2333345


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