Self-care Power and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Persons with Severe Mental Illness

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the study was to examine the self-care power and healthy lifestyle behaviors of persons with severe mental illness. Method: The research was carried out with 99 chronic psychiatric patients who applied to community mental health centres of one training and research hospital, two state hospitals. Data were collected using the healthy lifestyle behaviors scale II and the self-care power scale. Results: The highest level of healthy lifestyle behavior is in the dimensions of spiritual development and interpersonal relations, and the lowest level is in the dimension of physical activity. A moderately positive and significant relationship was found between the mean scores of healthy lifestyle behaviors and the mean scores of self-care power. Conclusion: In the study, the relationship between the healthy lifestyle behaviors of the patients and their self-care power was revealed. It is recommended that poor patients, young patients, and those with low social support should be evaluated as risky groups in terms of healthy lifestyle problems in community mental health centers and plans should be made to improve self-care power.