Process of the relapse prevention by community participation with multidisciplinary team for schizophrenic patients at Kosumphisai Hospital, Mahasarakham District, Mahasarakham Province

Abstract

                                                                                                               Abstract

           Schizophrenic patients are mentally ill patients at risk of relapse. They are needed to be closely monitored and supervised. This action research aimed 1) to study the process of relapse prevention by community participation with the multidisciplinary teams. 2) to study the outcome of the process of relapse prevention. The study participants consisted of 10 patients with schizophrenia in Kosumphisai Hospital’s care and 84 stakeholders by purposive sampling. Action research consists of 4 steps: 1) plan, 2) action, 3) observation and 4) reflection. Research tools include action plan to prevention relapse, a patient record form, and a patient follow-up form. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean and content analysis.

            The research results revealed that the process of relapse prevention consists of three components, including participation by community and multidisciplinary teams, guidelines for the care of schizophrenic patients based on shared decision making, and monitoring processes for schizophrenic patients. After a 90-day long-term follow-up, no patients with schizophrenia relapses, which had the brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) of less than 36 scores, considered to have low-level symptoms of psychiatric. The results indicate that the developed process based on awareness of problems and needs id efficient to prevent the relapses of schizophrenic patients.

Keywords: schizophrenia patients, relapse, community participation, shared decision making