Rehabilitation needs and disability in persons with Schizophrenia and the needs of the care givers.

ABSTRACT

Background: In India, Families are primary care givers of individuals with chronic mental illness such as Schizophrenia, However these caregivers needs to be assessed along with their ill relative to understand the care giving process. Aim: To get acquainted with the rehabilitation needs of persons diagnosed to have Schizophrenia and their care givers while correlating with disability quantified. Specific Objectives: (i) To assess the level of disability in the area of self care, interpersonal activities communication and understanding, work in persons with schizophrenia. (ii) To assess the rehabilitation needs of the persons with schizophrenia and their care givers. (iii) To evaluate the rehabilitation needs based on the level of disability of persons with schizophrenia. Method: Thirty individuals diagnosed to have schizophrenia as per DSMIV\ICD-10 criteria who fulfil inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken up for the study. The data was collected by administering the standardized research instruments such as IDEAS and RNAS. Results: 100 percent of the sample had a need in some area or the other. Majority of the sample (76.66%) had less than 40% disability. Among the need assessment, we found help for the family in terms of family education, group meetings, family burden and distress reduction interventions, interventions to deal with expressed emotion of the family member, were given priority by the majority (96.66%). Conclusion: Psycho social interventions to deal with family burden and distress should go hand in hand while reducing the disability of the patient. Impact on the family should be taken care for better care giving process and all the care givers require family interventions despite of variation in level of disability in their ill relative.