Psycho
education
This is
a method of providing clients and their families a theoretical approach to
understanding and coping with consequences of their psychological
disorders/problems or physical illnesses/responses (Suzuki , 2013). The role of
psycho education encompasses not only imparting knowledge and information
regarding treatment /psychological support through media but is also
characterised by active cooperation such as intervention exercises with
patients, families and their communities.
Effective
psycho education should be:
·
Gradual and easy to understand
·
Interactive
·
Use multiple teaching aids
·
Connote consumer as the expert
·
Elicit relatives’ experience and
understanding
·
Avoids conflict and confrontations
·
Long lasting process
·
Evaluate understanding
·
Review materials as often as possible (Bhatta, 2014)
Role
of psycho education to the client
·
Helps the client better understand (and
become accustomed to living with the mental health condition)
·
Enhancement of adherence
·
Improvement of illness management
·
Reduces hospitalisation and number of
days spend in the hospital
·
Early recognition of episode recurrence
and development of strategies for effective coping with symptoms
·
Increases hope and help in the
formulation of a personal development plan.
·
Empowers the client and enhances
attainment of basic competence.
·
Stress control skills
·
Improvement in social and occupational
functions
·
Improved quality of life
·
Engages the client in crisis management
and suicide prevention.
·
Supporting healthy component.
·
Increases satisfaction with mental
health services
·
Improves the quality of life of
individual.
·
Helps the client to recognise their
social support system
Clients who get a greater level of understanding of
the challenges they are facing as well as knowledge of personal coping ability
, internal and external resources, their own areas of strength are often better
able to address difficulties, feels more in control of the condition and have a
greater capacity to work towards mental and emotional well being.
Role of psycho education to the family
As many as 65% of discharged
psychiatric patients return to live with a family member and many families
remain involved with their relative whether or not the relative lives with them
(Prasko et. al, .2016). According to numerous studies have reported that adult
sibling’ concerns about the struggle of maintaining their own personal lives
while simultaneously remaining involved with their ill family member is a real
issue. He further stated that the development
of family psycho education interventions was based on earlier research that
found that patients released from hospitals to families who expressed a high
degree of hostility, criticism, and emotional over involvement were more likely
to have an exacerbation of their symptoms and to relapse and be rehospitalized.
Listed
below are the benefits of psycho education to the family
·
Helps
the family to get an insight into the conditions so that they actively
participate in the treatment of their loved ones.
·
Helps
to develop knowledge and skills instrumental in promoting the recovery of the
family member while eschewing family dysfunctional etiological theories of the
past.
·
Their
needs are also addressed since mental illness affects family members across a
range of domains such as work, leisure, family health, children and social
relationships.
·
Educated
on how to manage while looking after the individual, understanding their
situation and hardships and how to provide them with support.
·
Ensure their attainment of basic competence
·
The
more they are knowledgeable the more supportive they are.
·
Strengthening
their roles
·
Promotes
relapse prevention of the client
·
Enhancing
their coping skills
·
Improving
communication and problem solving skills. ( Stuart
& Laraia, 2008)
Roles
of psycho education to the community
According
to the model of human occupation, it regards that
individuals are open system which are influenced and also influence the
environment in which they exist. It focuses on the importance of the dynamic
interactive nature between the individual and environment and how this
relationship contributes to individual source of motivation, patterns of
behaviour and their actual performance. Due to this constant interaction
between individuals and their environment, their contexts have the need to be addressed. When people feel they have the support of the
community they are more likely to manage the distress associated with their
condition more effectively.
·
Promotes community awareness
·
Reduces social stigma
·
Produces a very supportive environment
which reduces the relapse rates of psychosis
·
Helps in identifying and building
community based interventions that are sustainable.
·
Helps in early detection hence promoting
early interventions promoting recovery
