The subjective recovery and internalized stigma of patients with schizophrenia in the community mental health centers

This descriptive study aimed to determine the subjective recovery and internalized stigma levels of schizophrenia patients who are followed in the Community Mental Health Center. The sample of the study consisted of 146 schizophrenia patients who were followed from in two Community Mental Health Centers located in the European Side of Istanbul, met the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent to participate in the study. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out using IBM SPSS V25 program. When the sociodemographic characteristics are examined; 67.1% of the participants were male, 47.9% were single, and 28.8% were living with their parents. In the study, it was found that the participants had a moderate subjective recovery and a moderate internalized stigma. Participants who live alone, do not work in a regular income-generating job, do not attend control appointments and community mental health centers regularly have lower subjective recovery and higher internalized stigma. There was a weak negative correlation between subjective recovery with age, duration of illness, and number of hospitalizations; No significant relationship was found between these characteristics and internalized stigma. In addition, the internalized stigma level of the participants who reported having loneliness / unwanted problems within the family due to the illness was found to be high. It was observed that patients who thought that the disease was caused by bad / challenging / stressful / negative life experiences had a high level of internalized stigma. A moderate negative correlation was found between subjective recovery and internalized stigma. In the medical treatment and rehabilitation of schizophrenia patients followed in the Community Mental Health Center, it is recommended to develop approaches and interventions that will strengthen the subjective recovery, to create and implement programs to combat stigma for all segments of the society, and to conduct qualitative studies to examine the effect of internalized stigma on the subjective recovery.