Effect on Empowerment of Families and Community on Caring Chronic Mental Illness in Kae Dam Sub-District Municipal Community Maha Sarakahm Province.

Abstract

          The objectives of this research were to study and comparison of knowledge on self-care, quality of life before and after participated in the empowerment group on caring chronic mental illness in  Kae Dam Sub-District Municipal Community Maha Sarakahm Province. By  using  Orem ’s Theoretical Framework on self-care  and the concept of empowerment by Gibson.

          The sample groups in the study were 40 patients, concluded mental illness 13 persons,caregivers 15 persons and leader group / village health volunteers (VHVs) 12 persons.By using 4 steps of group process that consist of 8 activities. The period of activities was two days per week and 2 hours per day for 4 weeks and follow up for assessment 2 times after operation for 2 months.

          The instrument used in this research study consist of knowledge testing form , deep-interview form , questionnaire on quality of life and the satisfaction assessment thatapplied from Praphapon Panchoom. The data collection on study was operated between May to October 2009. The data was analyzed  with computer program. The statistic used in this study were Mean , Percentage . The comparison on knowledge data, quality of life before and after study by using statistic Wlicoxon signed-ranks test. 

          The research finding of  the knowledge score comparison before and after self-care on patients group, caregivers group , community leaders as the whole are increasing on an average. The different on comparison of average knowledge scoreabout self-care find that the knowledge before and after are different but, with statistic significant(p<0.05)  . For the quality of life on sample groups as a whole before and after have higher average score at the medium level (82.48%)  and the comparison on the differentiation of average has different with no  statistic significant. (p>0.05) 

          This research show that the empowerment by using group process has higher perception of changing, self-care, and quality of life by supporting among patients families and community to access the services system quickly and to generate the network of mental health and psychiatric service in the community.