Psychiatric Social Work Intervention for Social Rejection of persons with Schizophrenia in Rural Areas – An Intervention Study

It is widely acknowledged that schizophrenic patients have major deficits in social functioning in the community. The intervention to improve these deficits is inadequate in rural areas in India. The aim is to ascertain impact of structured psychiatric social work intervention for management of social rejection of persons with schizophrenia in rural areas. The sample consisted of thirty persons with schizophrenia and significant family members. A proportionate sample covering heterogeneous socio demographic background was drawn using simple random sampling technique. It was followed a Before-After Experimental Research Design Without Control Group. The social rejection and orientation towards mental illness were assessed before and after psychiatric social work intervention using Patient Rejection Scale and Orientation towards Mental Illness Scale. After psychiatric social work intervention overall there were changes in the domains of social rejection and orientation towards mental illness. The results have indicated that the psychiatric social work intervention has contributed to improve the social functioning of the patients in rural areas. Results have shown the changes in all the domains of social rejections and orientation towards mental illness significantly. Conducting similar studies in different settings would contribute to the psychiatric social work knowledge in future.