Health Professional’s Perceptions Toward Recovery of Patients with Schizophrenia in Community

Abstract

Background: Perceptions of health professionals contribute to the process of service provision to recover patients with schizophrenia. Thus, different perceptions of mental health professionals toward recovery of patients with schizophrenia can affect decision making in providing services. Aim: This study aimed to describe the perceptions of health professionals toward recovery of patients with schizophrenia in the community. Methods: This study was designed as a qualitative study by involving 12 participants of professional health workers, consisting of two psychiatrists, two psychologists, two nurses and two doctors from a public health center, two social workers, and two officials from the health department in Yogyakarta province. The research was conducted with purposive sampling using in-depth interviews, with a semi-structured question method. The transcribed interview results were then analyzed. Results: The research results identified four themes, namely: definition of recovery, type of recovery, recovery characteristics, and differences in perceptions about recovery. Recovery is defined as a condition of normal return, which covers physical, psychological, social, economic and spiritual aspects. There are three types of recovery, namely total recovery, clinic recovery, and social recovery. Some professional health workers perceive that schizophrenic patients can achieve total recovery, while some others consider that patients will never achieve a total recovery. Conclusions: Although the perceptions of different health professionals have the same dimensions of recovery (definition, type, characteristic of recovery), there are different points of view in each of this dimension.