Effectiveness of a New Structured Psychoeducational, Salutogenetic Based Approach, in Facilitating the Recovery of People with Severe Mental Disorders

Aim: Nowadays there is an increasing attention to the recovery of people with severe mental disorders. Consequently, there is a growing literature mainly focused on the description of excellence paths with particular attention to the organizational aspects of the service. Less investigation has been carried out about specific interventions to foster all the abilities that are essential to improve the living conditions. The aim of this paper is twofold: 1) to describe an innovative and salutogenetic approach called “Group Psycho-educational Intervention for the Attainment of Objectives, Inte.G.R.O.” conceived to facilitate recovery by improving functioning; 2) to evaluate the impact of this approach after a year of “active intervention”. Methods: We used a pre-post assessment design-study in 25 subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or personality disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. We used the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) to evaluate functioning, the primary outcome. The secondary outcome measures were assessed by means of the Tower of London (ToL), the Stress-Scale, the Modified Five-Point Test for cognitive flexibility (M-FPT), the APEN/G and APEP/G scales for perceived self-efficacy, the Integrative Hope Scale (IHS), and ad hoc questionnaire of knowledge about Definition of Objectives, Communication Skills and Problem-Solving. The clinical assessment was performed by the Brief Psychyatric Rating Scale (BPRS), while we used the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Results: Significant improvements were found in the following variables: PSP (p<0.01); BPRS total score (p<0.05); RBANS total score (p<0.05); Execution Time (p<0.05) and Total Time (p<0.05) subscores of ToL; Stress-Scale (p<0.05); ad hoc questionnaire of knowledge about Definition of Objectives, Communication Skills and Problem-Solving (p<0.01). Conclusions: The observed data confirm the effectiveness of this innovative approach, above all on Personal and Social Functioning, stress management, cognitive flexibility and problem solving that are key variables for Personal Recovery.