International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

Deficits in social and living skills of chronic mental patients and the unsatisfactoriness of current drug, provide a strong rationale for developing new interventions.Community Re-Entry Program is one of the programs related to social and independent living skills that provides patients with chronic mental disorders with some information and skills. The aim of the present study was to compared symptoms severity and communication and interaction skills of outpatients with severe mental disorders after the Community Re-entry and conventional Psychotherapy programs. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: This study was a quasiexperimental design with pre-test, post-test. To this end, 40 patients with severe mental disorders (schizophrenia and mood disorder) referring to daily rehabilitation centers of Hamadan and using simple randomization divided into an Community Reentry Program (N=20) and a Conventional Psychotherapy Programs (N=20) group. The community rehabilitation program group received in 16 60-90-minute educational sessions held Twice a week for two months: The conventional Psychotherapy group were used from psychotherapy and occupational therapy. Both groups were evaluated using Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills (ACIS) questionnaire and positive and negative symptom scales (PANSS) before and after the intervention. To analyze of Mean difference in the two groups, were used from U Mann- Witny test. Findings: The results showed that the two groups were the same in terms of age, marital status and employment levels. Patients who received Community Re-entry Program showed a significant change in information exchange (P = 0.001), relations (P = 0.0001) and total score of ACIS questionnaire (P = 0.0001) and in the positive symptoms (P = 0.01) of PANSS questionnaire compared to the conventional psychotherapy group. Conclusion & Significance: The results showed that Community Re-Entry Program in compared with conventional psychotherapy daily centers played an important role in improving communication and interaction skills among patients with severe mental disorders in the study population. Yet, future studies are required to assess the long-term clinical effects of this program.

Biography