The Effect of Family-to-Family Support Programs Provided for Families of Schizophrenic Patients on Information about Illness, Family Burden and Self-Efficacy

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the effects of family-to-family support programs provided for the families of schizophrenic patients on the need for information about the illness, family burden and self-efficacy Method: The study was carried out with 34 relatives who have key rolesin the lives of 34 outpatients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia under DSM-IV-TR. A volunteering family member was given training about the purpose, contents and planning of the program. Thefamily member who had been trainedthen extended this training to other family members with the assistance of the psychiatric nurse. The training was done once a week, for atotal of 12 sessions. The data were collected using a Disease Information Form (DIF), the Perceived Family Burden Scale (PFBS) and the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES). Results: There was a significant decrease in the PFBS objective scores (from 11.76 +/- 3.89 to 9.82 +/- 4.03, p=0.000), subjective scores (from 37.85 +/- 14.57 to 32.74 +/- 4.39, p=0.030) and total scores (from 49.62 +/- 18.25 to 42.56 +/- 7.56, p=0.005) and a significant increase in the SESS scores (from 82.65 +/- 12.01 to 97.79 +/- 7.17, p=0.000). Before training, 58.8% of family members correctly answered that schizophrenia is a brain disease, while 94.1% correctly stated that,it must be treated with medicadon;however, 55.9% of caregivers incorrectly believed in magical attributions relating to the disease.After training, all caregivers were able to answer correctly. Conclusion: A family-to-family support program was found to be effective in reducing caregivers' need for information, reducing their burden, and increasing their self-efficacy in our country. Key Words: Schizophrenia, family-to-family support program, families, knowledge of the disease, family burden, self-efficacy