Association between Community Integration and Mental Health Recovery among Patients with Psychiatric Disorders

Background:  The practice of integrating mentally ill patients back into the community is drawing attention all over the world. Community integration is essential for people with mental illness because it promotes their physical and mental health, life satisfaction, well-being and quality of life. It requires the mental health system, public health, and social services to develop innovative ways to help patients with psychiatric disorders to regain their place in the communities. Aim: assess the levels of community integration and mental health recovery among patients with psychiatric disorders and explore the association between both of them. Design: Descriptivecorrelational research design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted at psychiatric outpatient clinic that is affiliated to Tanta University. Sample:  A purposive sample of 100 patients with psychiatric disorders. Tools: Three tools were used to collect data, Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, Community integration scale for adult with psychiatric problems (CIS-APP) and Recovery assessment scale-revised (RAS-R). Method: Each patient who attend to the outpatient clinic and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria was interviewed by the researcher on an individual base, in privacy to establish rapport and gain his trust, sign the informed consent, and complete the study tools. Results: The majority of the patients had lower levels of community integration and mental health recovery. In addition, a statistically significant positive correlation between community integration and recovery was detected. Conclusion: The studied patients had poor community integration and mental health recovery. Community integration and recovery are correlated and influencing each other. Social community integration is the first main predictor of mental health recovery among the studied psychotic patients. Recommendation: Continuous efforts are needed to improve social community integration among the patients via applying different programs for social skills training and assertiveness skills that strengthen patient’s ability to form relationships with others in the community and subsequently enhance their recovery.