Efficacy of Social Skills Training for the Persons with Chronic Schizophrenia

Abstract

There are various quantitative studies have been conducted both nationally as well as internationally that revealed the effectiveness of social skills training in schizophrenia. However, very few qualitative studies have been conducted to measure the relevance of social skills training in schizophrenia. The present study investigated the effectiveness of six months social skills training program with 5 inpatients chronic schizophrenia, conducted for one and half an hour in a week. Employing phenomenological approach, psychosocial assessment was done on the basis of interviews, observations, role-plays, and work assignments, which was analyzed using Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen Method of phenomenology. The social skills training resulted in decreasing social anxiety and enhancing social functioning as maintaining personal hygiene, significant gain in adherence to medications, making request, expressing feeling, and sorting out problematic issues that sustained up to 18 months following intervention. It has been effective in changing the patient’s behaviors and boosted their capacity to confront problematic situations, but weaker effects were found for auditory hallucination in one of the patients.