What Level of Self-Care Agency in Mental Illness? The Factors Affecting Self-Care Agency and Self-Care Agency in Patients with Mental Illness

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate self-care agency and the factors affecting self-care agency in patients with psychiatric disorders. The population of the study comprised patients diagnosed with mental disorders at the clinics of psychiatry in Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital and Atatürk University Research Hospital. Patient information forms and the Self-Care Agency Scale were used to collect the study data. Psychiatric nurse collected the data from the patients face to face. This study determined that the average age of the patients was determined to be 32.19±1.11. The findings indicated that the mean self-care agency level of the patients was 79.3±23.2. It was also found that the differences between sex, educational status, socio-economic status, and self-care agency levels were statistically significant (p<0.05). In conclusion, the patients’ self-care agency levels were determined to be mid-level. The findings suggest that people with mental disorders have difficulty identifying their need for self-care. Thus, periodic training programs are necessary to increase self-care levels and further research studies of this type should be done on larger groups.