Psycho-educational groupwork for detained offender patients: understanding mental illness

Abstract

Psycho-education for patients suffering from psychiatric disorders is seen as a key element in the goal of recovery. The present study examined the usefulness of a groupwork cognitive behavioural psycho-educational intervention for patients in a high-security hospital. Thirty-one patients with a primary diagnosis of mental illness completed a group patients entitled: ‘Understanding Mental Illness’ which promotes awareness of descriptions of illness and strategies for managing symptoms. The SCQ and CORE-OM were administered pre- and post-group, measures to monitor relapse and behavioural change were also included. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants and their feedback was examined using content analysis. Themes from interviews indicated that patients reported a number of benefits. Formal measures used as indices of ‘change’ failed to yield clear improvements in self-reported functioning. However, the majority of patients engaged in further psychological work, which is cautiously interpreted as a trend in the direction of openness to engagement.

Keywords:

• psycho-education
• mental illness
• mentally disordered offenders