Schizophrenia: a review of current research and thinking

New Path to Recovery and Well-Being: Cross-Sectional Study on WeChat Use and Endorsement of WeChat-Based mHealth Among People Living With Schizophrenia in China

Background

The past few decades have seen an exponential increase in using mobile phones to support medical care (mobile health [mHealth]) among people living with psychosis worldwide, yet little is known about WeChat use and WeChat-based mHealth among people living with schizophrenia (PLS) in China.

Objective

This study aims to assess WeChat use, endorsement of WeChat-based mHealth programs, and health related to WeChat use among PLS.

Methods

We recruited a random sample of 400 PLS from 12 communities in Changsha City of Hunan Province, China. WeChat use was assessed using the adapted WeChat Use Intensity Questionnaire (WUIQ). We also compared psychiatric symptoms, functioning, disability, recovery, quality of life, and general well-being between WeChat users and nonusers using one-to-one propensity-score matching.

Results

The WeChat use rate was 40.8% in this sample (163/400); 30.7% (50/163) had more than 50 WeChat friends and nearly half (81/163, 49.7%) spent more than half an hour on WeChat, a pattern similar to college students and the elderly. PLS also showed higher emotional connectedness to WeChat use than college students. About 80.4% (131/163) of PLS were willing to participate in a WeChat-based mHealth program, including psychoeducation (91/163, 55.8%), professional support (82/163, 50.3%), and peer support (67/163, 41.1%). Compared with nonusers, WeChat users were younger, better educated, and more likely to be employed. WeChat use was associated with improved health outcomes, including lower psychiatric symptoms, lower depression, higher functioning, better recovery, and higher quality of life.

Conclusions

WeChat-based mHealth programs hold promise as an empowering tool to provide cost-effective interventions, to foster global recovery, and to improve both physical and mental well-being among PLS. WeChat and WeChat-based mHealth programs have the potential to offer a new path to recovery and well-being for PLS in China.

Consumer and carer participation in mental health care: the carer's perspective: part 1 - the importance of respect and collaboration

The role of family carers in the delivery of mental health services in Australia has become more than an advantage over not having this sort of participation. Increasingly the involvement of non-paid carers (family members and significant others) has been recognised as central to the smooth delivery of care and treatment. Notwithstanding this acknowledgment, there is very little discussion of carer participation in mental health care delivery within the literature. The limited research in this area suggests that carers recognize very little opportunity for genuine participation, even less than is available to consumers. This paper presents part 1 of the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study seeking an in-depth understanding of the attitudes of carers from rural Victoria, Australia toward opportunities for participation with specific emphasis on the role of psychiatric nurses in encouraging or discouraging participation. The themes of respect and communication will be described in this paper. These findings demonstrate the variable experiences of carers in their opportunities to participate and the important role nurses can assume in supporting both carers and consumers through this process.

Qualitative and quantitative approaches in mental health nursing: moving the debate forward

In recent years, two distinct, and apparently opposing, positions have arisen in debates concerned with mental health nursing research, education and practice. Each of the two has its champions and 'gurus', and its detractors. Writers associated with the quantitative camp have argued in favour of: experimental research where the aims are the investigation of the outcomes of nursing care; multidisciplinary rather than unidisciplinary research; a physiological explanation for mental illness; clinical practice which is evidence based, and skills based education. Qualitative camp writers, on the other hand, have argued for: qualitative research to explore the experiences of illness, and of nursing; the preservation of nursing-only research; the relative irrelevance of physical explanations of mental illness, and holistic nursing practice in which clinical techniques are less important than interpersonal relationships. In this paper, we first review and criticize some key ideas associated with these two positions. In our subsequent analysis, we argue that, rather than differing at some fundamental level, the differences found between the two camps may be more a matter of emphasis. The possibilities of reconciliation and synthesis are, finally, presented and discussed.