Abstract

Rheumatic chronic diseases (RCD) are among the most common chronic non-communicable diseases. They are the leading cause of disability in developed countries, and consume a large amount of health and social resources. The purpose of this preliminary study (PHOENIX PROJECT) was to evaluate changes in the quality of life of patients suffering from RCD followed by talks in Group Counseling for emotional support. Group Counseling talks for emotional support is a behavioural intervention to facilitate patients adopt and sustain their own health related goals. The Counseling Group talks have been divided into eight meetings for a period of four months according to the cycle of the Gestalt contact, each meeting lasted two hours. During the first and the last meeting it is given the self-assessment questionnaire SF-36, in order to make measurable the results obtained. In patients there was a significant improvement in quality of life, without any change of the treatment set by the specialist; patients have expressed great satisfaction with the procedures of the meetings and for their given opportunity to express their emotional state linked to the basic chronic disease. Our preliminary study suggests that Group Counseling talks for emotional support could be extremely effective in patients with chronic rheumatic diseases.

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