Community-based psychosocial rehabilitation for schizophrenia service users in the north west province of South Africa: A formative study
This study aimed to develop a community psychosocial rehabilitation programme for users with schizophrenia
Abstract
Psychosocial support is recognized as important for recovery for service users with schizophrenia, in addition to provision of antipsychotic medication. This study aimed to develop a community-based psychosocial rehabilitation programme for service users with schizophrenia to be facilitated by auxiliary social workers, and to investigate acceptability and feasibility of the programme. A task-sharing approach was adopted in which auxiliary social workers were trained to facilitate psychosocial rehabilitation groups. In-depth individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 6 group members at baseline, midpoint, and endpoint (18 interviews in total).
Participants reported benefits of the programme, including improvements in group members’ self-esteem, social support, illness knowledge, self-care, and contribution to their households. A key barrier to acceptability was the lack of provision of income generating opportunities. Implementation challenges include difficulties in tracing and engaging service users and families, lack of an appropriate venue, and issues with supply of antipsychotic medication. This study has provided evidence for the benefits and acceptability of this contextually adapted programme. Key barriers to implementation can be addressed through the provision of the necessary resources for auxiliary social worker input in the community.
This study is part of the Department for International Development’s Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME) which is led by the University of Cape Town
Citation
Carrie Brooke-Sumner, Crick Lund, One Selohilwe, Inge Petersen (2016) Community-based psychosocial rehabilitation for schizophrenia service users in the north west province of South Africa: A formative study. Social Work in Mental Health Vol. 15 , Issue. 3, 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2016.1220439