We relied on several sources of information to identify
critical areas to target for our intervention, including
a review of the literature on the use of psychotherapeutic
management of schizophrenia, our own clinical experience
in working with older patients with
schizophrenia, and a survey of patients in our IRC asking
them about their potential treatment goals for a psychotherapy
group. The intervention method that we
developed included both CBT and SST components
(CBSST). The CBT training was based on a manual developed
by Mun˜ oz and Miranda (unpublished). We
chose this manual because it was designed to be simple
and easily understood, and emphasized coping with ongoing
difficulties that older people face (e.g., health
problems, financial limitations) to a greater extent than
other CBT interventions. Both schizophrenia and older
age are associated with greater cognitive deficits, and
thus the intervention included multiple modalities (written
materials, group discussion, posters, and lecture) to
provide information, training in mnemonic compensatory
strategies, repetition of basic themes throughout
the course of the group, and extensive skills practice.
We chose to draw from the SST interventions developed
by Liberman et al. because of evidence37 supporting
their efficacy