There have only been a few decades of research on the topic of resilience and most of this has been in the area of pediatrics growing up in hazardous conditions or as survivors of trauma. Much of the research discusses factors of resilience for children as they develop.
What about adults? If an adult is not predisposed to these factors of resilience or did not develop these factors due to trauma(s), can resilience be learned later in life. New research is suggesting that adults can learn new pathways to resilience and in fact many adults can find a multitude of pathways to resilience.
George A.
Bonanno, PhD out of Columbia University, has done quite a bit of work on resilience and coping with grief and trauma. His research is pointing to the fact that not only can resilience be learned, it is in fact quite common.
Here is a link to George
Bonanno's website at Columbia:
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=gab38
This leads to the question of best methods to develop or enhance resilience in Care partners of PD, particularly for care partners that have been in the caring role for many years. I believe Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a method that can help enhance resilience in the face of adversity.
What do other Social Workers working in PD find is effective in assisting care partners or
PWPs enhance their resilience?
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