Abstract:
The purposes ofthis quasi experimentalresearch were to study the mental health self-care behavior of schizophrenia patients, caregivers in community before andafter usingself-help group andto compare the mental health self-care behavior of schizophrenia patients, caregivers in community between schizophrenia patients, caregivers in community who received the self-help groupand received traditionalcare.Research samples consisted of 60 members ofschizophrenia patients, caregivers in community, who met the inclusion criteria.Thesesamples weredevided into theexperimentalgroup and control group by matched pairs identified bysex,age,level of education and marital status. Research instruments were the self-help group program and the mental health self-care behavior test, developed by researcher.Thementalhealth self-carebehavior test was tested for validity and reliability.Its reliability was 0.92. Statisticaltechniques used in data analysis were mean, standard deviation andt-test.
Major finding were as followed: 1.)The mental health self-care behaviorof schizophrenia patients,caregivers in community in the experimental group after the experiment were statistically significant higher than before theexperiment at the .05 level. (t= 70.65,p= .00) 2.)The mental health self-care behavior of schizophrenia patients, caregivers in community in the experimental group after the experiment were statistically significant higher than schizophreniapatients, caregivers in community in the control group at the .05 level. (t= 27.53,p= .00)