SCHIZOPHRENIA: LIVING WITH OR AGAINST THE ILLNESS. A SMALL CASE EXPLORATORY STUDY
SCHIZOPHRENIA: LIVING WITH OR AGAINST THE ILLNESS. A SMALL CASE EXPLORATORY STUDY

Summary/Abstract: For persons with severe mental illness, recovery has been defined as the process of living a satisfying life within the constraints of their mental illness. Schizophrenia is a severe complex mental health disorder characterized by an array of positive and negative symptoms, and the timing of the occurrence along with its chronic course, make it a disabling disorder for many patients and their families. Method: This small-scale exploratory study aims at measuring how a sample of 24 patients manages to cope with the diagnosis and evaluate their level of recovery from the illness. RAS-R was and data was analyzed according to the five dimensions of the scale: personal confidence and hope, willingness to ask for help, goal and success orientation, reliance on others, and autonomy. Results: Our sample generally obtained a mean value in the middle range of the scale showing that they manage quite successfully to accept the diagnosis and construct a positive image of the future. Even if we did not get significant differences according to gender, women showed better scores. Conclusions: The care model for persons with schizophrenia must be oriented toward a full recovery process. This means moving away from the assumption that care focuses on maintain or stabilizing the patients’ mental health, to a more holistic approach that includes values such as hope, social inclusion, goal setting, and patient selfmanagement.

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