Societal participation: examining the impact of a rehabilitation approach for young people with schizophrenia.

Accessible summary In addition to medical and psychosocial treatment of impairments, societal participation should be recognized as an important treatment goal for patients with schizophrenia, and it can be applied in daily practice by nurses and social workers, even when psychiatric impairments require acute care., Our research indicated that rehabilitation counselling by nurses and social workers within a multidisciplinary team helps to increase the societal participation level of young people with schizophrenia, while their impairments scores remained stable., Patients with more mild impairments seemed to profit more from rehabilitation counselling while patients whose impairments were more severe seemed to profit less. Our research also indicated that patients with similar levels of impairment did not show differences in their level of societal participation, regardless of drug use., Drug use as such is not a contraindication for rehabilitation counselling. Treatment of impairments, including management of drug addiction, should be closely interwoven with support for a patient's rehabilitation goals., Abstract This paper is based on research that focuses on the impact of a rehabilitation approach with respect to 99 young people diagnosed with schizophrenia in a Dutch mental health facility. The approach focused on societal participation goals. Nurses and social workers play a key role in such treatment. The research focused on developmental trajectories and showed significant improvement with respect to societal participation levels. Impairment scores remained stable. The results indicate that rehabilitation counselling by nurses and social workers, in addition to medication and psychosocial treatment and integrated in a multidisciplinary team, can make a difference in a patient's societal participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]