The purpose of this study is searching for some strategies for longer job maintenance of people with schizophrenic disorder, through examining factors in job maintenance of these patients.
For this, 168 schizophrenics enrolled in community mental hea...
The purpose of this study is searching for some strategies for longer job maintenance of people with schizophrenic disorder, through examining factors in job maintenance of these patients.
For this, 168 schizophrenics enrolled in community mental health centers and social rehabilitation center and who maintain their job over 6 month were assessed. Measures included standardized questionnaire which had 3 sub-dimensions, Social Skills Ability, Job Skills Ability, and Socio-environmental Factors.
The findings were as follows:
First, among demographic factors, only the monthly income had significant effects on job maintenance of schizophrenics.
Second, Social Skills Ability was the strongest effecting sub-dimension factor in job maintenance followed by Socio-environmental Factors and Job Skills Ability.
Third, among the sub-dimension of Social Skills Ability, interpersonal relationship skills were the primary factor that affected on job maintenance, following were daily living skills training, self-esteem in sequence.
Forth, relationship maintenance skills, expression skills were of consequence in the sub-factor of interpersonal relationship skills, leisure activity, money management, health management had importance in the sub-factor of daily living skills training, and self-control ability and positive self-image were important in the self-esteem sub-factors.
Fifth, task understanding ability was significant among job adaptation ability sub-factors, concentration and positiveness were significant among job competence sub-factors, and satisfaction with given tasks was significant among job satisfaction sub-factors.
Sixth, respectively, the level of problem solving ability among support from employer-colleague sub-factors, and emotional support from mental health professional sub-factors effected significantly upon job maintenance of schizophrenics.
In order to search for strategies for longer job maintenance of schizophrenic patients, findings indicated that the importance of developing training programs with several stages, job preparing stage, job skills training stage, and social support stage.
In the job preparing stage, programs might include interpersonal relationship skills training in order to improve social skills ability of schizophrenics, daily living skills training, and program for rising self-esteem.
The job skills training stage might contain assessment of job competence according to individual needs and aptitudes, assessment of task understanding ability, and assessment of work conditions before each job placement.
After the placement, the social support stage which contains emotional supports from employer, colleague, and (mental health) professional might be followed.
Further researches focusing on developing integrated scales for measure social and occupational ability of schizophrenic patients, and on assessing the effectiveness of self-help group programs are proposed.