Exploring community–based interventions for mentally ill patients to improve quality of care

Thesis (MCur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.Mentally ill patients need to be treated with dignity and their basic human rights must be respected. Community-based interventions are commonly used in many areas after deinstitutionalisation of mentally ill patients. However, it is unfortunate that mental health and mental disorders are neglected in many areas with no proper or standardized services in the community for treatment and support. As a result, most of the mentally ill patients roam in the streets in the rural communities. Exploring community-based interventions in rural areas could assist to improve the quality care of the mentally ill patients. The communities need to be aware of the interventions available to support the mentally ill patients and their family members so that community members who give care to mentally ill patients can be able to identify, implement, monitor and sustain effective interventions to meet the needs of the mentally ill patients in rural areas. Suggestions could also be made to the Department of Health with regard to the community-based interventions in order to improve quality of patient care. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the current community-based interventions for the mentally ill patients as well as explore recommendations by the professional nurses and community caregivers about the utilization of community-based interventions to support mentally ill patients in a rural community. In order to obtain rich in-depth data, a qualitative research approach was followed. A case study design was used to complement the holistic in-depth investigation. Purposive sampling was used to identify professional nurses as participants in the community and snow-ball sampling was used to identify further community caregivers who meet the inclusion criteria. Ethics was considered during the identification and selection of participants. Triangulation of data collection method was undertaken where structured interviews, field notes and documents were used as methods of data collection. A semi-structured interview schedule was formulated which was evaluated by experts in qualitative research. A trial run interview was conducted prior to data collection. Voice recorders were used for the purpose of audio taping the interviews, thereafter the interviews were transcribed and prepared for data analysis. The researcher ensured that field notes were taken immediately after each interview. Data was collected until saturation was reached after ten interviews and analysis of six documents. Data was analysed by means of a written record or transcripts as suggested by Neuwenhuis (2011:89). A specialist qualitative researcher was appointed as a co-coder to analyse the data. The interpretative pattern of data analysis for qualitative data analysis was followed and the guidelines prescribed by Terre Blanche, Durrheim and Kelly (2011:321) were adopted. The identified themes were current interventions and utilizing current suggested interventions. Thus conclusions were drawn in relation to identified themes that with current interventions there are different categories of caregivers that are involved in the care of mentally ill patients in rural communities. Included are the health caregivers, non-governmental organisations, police officers, faith/spiritual healers, traditional healers, families and community members. However challenges were still identified for an example defaulting of treatment, relapse and read missions of mentally ill patients. With regard to utilizing suggested interventions, participants emphasised more on the need to develop structures in order to support the mentally ill patients in their rural communities and continued community education mental illness and mental health. The recommendations were made to nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education.Master