Satisfaction with the social support of people with mental illness in recovery process

Abstract

Objective Evaluate the satisfaction with the social support of people with mental illness, in the scope of recovery, after hospital discharge. Methods This study is part of a research project (InterComuniCaRe), which object of study is related to the recovery of people with mental illness. This phase, Implementation of an Individual Intervention Program, comprehends 3 evaluation moments: M0-initial evaluation (hospital discharge); M1-intermediate evaluation (2 months after initial evaluation); M2-final evaluation (4 months after the initial evaluation). Quantitative, descriptive and exploratory study which intends to disclose the results of M0 related to satisfaction with social support. The sample (convenience sampling technique), at this moment, is made of 36 participants. Sample selection criteria: mental illness; age≥18 years, excluding people with dementia, intellectual debility and addiction problems. The evaluation of the satisfaction with social support was performed using the Social Support Satisfaction Scale (Pais-Ribeiro, 2011), with 15 items, distributed by 4 dimensions: Satisfaction with Friends, Intimacy, Family Satisfaction and Social Activities. The study was approved by an Ethic Committee. All participants signed a free and informed consent. Descriptive statistical analysis was made using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 25.0. Results 36 participants were evaluated: 35 females; age mean of 48,7 years; 55,6% attended middle school; 41,7% are employed, 33.3% are unemployed; 44,4% present psychotic disorders, 38,9% present mood disorders. To facilitate comparisons between the Scale’s dimensions, scores were converted from 0 to 100, according to the author's orientation. The full score for the Scale may vary between 15 and 75. The highest score of the dimensions, and the total score of the Scale, correspond to a higher perception of social support. From the analysis, the dimension with the lowest score was Social Activities (47,8±19,6), followed by Intimacy (58,3±18,6) and Satisfaction with Friends (59,7±21,3), being the highest score attributed to the Family Satisfaction dimension (68,9±22,0). A score of 44,1±10,7 was obtained for the total punctuation of the Scale. Discussion Social support is one of the strategies of people to cope with the complexity and adversity of health and disease. It is known that social support can be understood by the quantity of relationships and their quality. This work indicates that the most fragile dimension is Social Activities and the strongest one is Satisfaction with the Family. These results are relevant so that the individual intervention programs designed for each person, in the scope of recovery, take into account the level of satisfaction that he/she presents with social support. The data from this study allow a serious reflection of the subjective aspects of people's lives, and confirm the importance of including them in the care process associated with the promotion of recovery. This work is a result of the project (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-023855), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)