IF ONLY WE HAD KNOWN: A FAMILY GUIDE TO BORDERLINE PERSONLITY DISORDER

Summary
This five-part video series on families and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The series examines what BPD is, what causes it, how it is diagnosed and treated, and how families can learn to cope with it. The research study was conducted in collaboration with the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder to test the effectiveness of the videos on family members.

All participants answered four surveys before viewing the videos and after. Changes in BPD knowledge, empowerment, emotional burden and hopefulness were measured..

What were we looking for?
We measured four things:
1. Knowledge of BPD to see how much family members knew about BPD.
2. Empowerment to determine how much family members were demoralized by BPD.
3. Emotional Burden to learn how much families were affected by BPD.
4. Hopefulness to find out what family members thought about the future.

What did we find out?
Changes in Scores from before viewing the videos (pre-test) to right after viewing the videos (post-test)

BPD KNOWLEDGE
Viewers of If Only We Had Known reported a much greater change in BPD knowledge after watching the videos.

EMPOWERMENT
Viewers of If Only We Had Known reported a much greater change in empowerment after watching the videos.

EMOTIONAL BURDEN
Viewers of If Only We Had Known videos reported less emotional burden after watching.

HOPE
Both viewers of If Only We Had Known and viewers of the mental illness videos reported slight changes in hopefulness after watching.

How about 3 months later?
Changes in Scores from Post–test to 3 Months after viewing the videos

BPD KNOWLEDGE
Viewers of If Only We Had Known still reported a greater increase in BPD knowledge after watching than viewers of the mental illness videos.

EMPOWERMENT
Viewers of the If Only We Had Known videos still reported a much greater increase in empowerment after watching than viewers of the mental illness videos.

EMOTIONAL BURDEN
Viewers of If Only We Had Known videos reported much less emotional burden.

HOPE
Both viewers of If Only We Had Known and viewers of the mental illness videos reported slight decreases in hopefulness.

What did viewers think of the videos?
Satisfaction Survey Data
90% found the video series helpful.
81% said the information was understandable.
86% thought the video series would be helpful to other members of their families.
90% would recommend this program to other families who have a relative with BPD.

What does this all mean?
From the data we have collected so far, it looks like people who watched the Family Guide to BPD videos were more informed, more empowered and less emotionally burdened by their loved one’s BPD. It doesn’t look like either set of videos made people feel more hopeful.