Abstract:
Long-term caring for persons with schizophrenia who have deficit in cognitive and emotional expression may lead to a perception of burden if the caregivers are unable to adapt to their caregiving roles. This quasi-experimental research study aimed to evaluate the effect of a multichannel psychoeducation program on the caregiving burden of caregivers of persons with schizophrenia. The sample consisted of caregivers of persons with schizophrenia who had a caregiving burden score ranging from mild to moderate and had no comorbid medical conditions, aged between 18 and 60 years, both male and female, who brought people with schizophrenia for services at the Thammasat University Hospital mental health clinic. A total of 50 participants, matched in pairs based on care burden scores, psychiatric symptom scores (BPRS), age, and gender, were randomly allocated into the experimental and control groups, equally. During the intervention, several participants withdrew due to inconvenience or loss of contact. As a result, 23 experimental group and 22 control group participants attended until the end. The experimental group received the multichannel psychoeducation program over 7 sessions, twice a week for 40 minutes each, conducted via video conference through the Line application, except for the first session, which was performed face-to-face over 60 minutes at the mental health clinic in the hospital setting. Data was collected using the demographic questionnaire and the Zarit Burden Interview Thai version. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and paired sample t-test. The study results revealed that: 1. The burden score of caregivers in the experimental group after receiving the multichannel psychoeducation program for one month compared to before the experiment decreased with statistical significance at the level of .05. 2. The caregiving burden score of the caregivers in the experimental group was lower than those in the control group after receiving the multichannel psychoeducation program for one month with statistical significance at the level of .05. This study demonstrates that the multichannel psychoeducation program effectively reduces caregiving burden, suggesting that this program should be implemented to alleviate caregiver burden of individuals caring for patients with schizophrenia in Thailand.