CBT based Acceptance Commitment Logo-therapeutic Meaning Management Program (CALM): A pilot study

Pages:305-310
A. George and Rosalito De Guzman (The Graduate School, University of Santo Thomas, Manila, Philippines)

HIV is a major global public health issue today. The day to day confrontations of various stressful situations in the lives of the people living with HIV drag them into the shadows of hopelessness and meaninglessness. Perceiving this scenario, the researcher aimed to develop an intervention to enhance the meaning in life and to alleviate death anxiety among the adult men living with HIV and to pilot test its viability and usability in the clinical practice. The study made use of The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) to assess levels of the meaning of life and death anxiety the adult men living with HIV face. For the better understanding of the situation the researcher conducted need-assessment survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Based on these assessment procedures, the researcher developed a nine-modular intervention program, CBT based acceptance commitment logo-therapeutic meaning management program (CALM), an intervention based on the meaning management theory to enhance meaning of life and to alleviate death anxiety among the adult men living with HIV. The content of CALM was validated by six inter-disciplinary experts and it proved to be excellent. The pilot was tested among ten adult men living with HIV. CALM showed large effect of enhancement of the meaning in life and decrease in death anxiety of the participants in the study.