Lived Experiences of Persons with Chronic Schizophrenia Living in the Community

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder which impacts a person’s ability to successfully function in the community. When it interacts with structural and situational stress like poverty, homelessness and unemployment, it can lead to negative experiences and makes a person vulnerable to abuse or even develop resilience or retaining a meaningful life within the limitation of the disorder. The study aims to understand how individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia define and evaluate their experience of living in the community; personal and environmental strengths, impact of illness on their personal and social life, the challenges and barriers they meet in their day to day life and how they overcome those challenges. Methods: The study focuses on lived experiences and deriving meaning from those experiences from a service user perspective. Therefore, Hermeneutic phenomenological approach will be used. In-depth interviews will be conducted over the course of four months to elicit client’s narratives of their experiences. The interviews are transcribed, read and coded to cluster thematic aspects in each case by using ATLAS.ti.v.7. Data will be collected till saturation point is reached and participants are from various age-group, socio-economic status, ethnicity and educational background, living in the Community. Implication: Participants’ stories would narrate sources of strength, process of normalization, describing instances of discrimination, social and structural factors which they encounter affecting their help-seeking behaviour and how these factors act as facilitator and barriers in their day to day life. Findings would suggest the need for advocacy services which are discussed through recommendations and suggestions.