24-5 A Study of Career Narratives and Career Rehabilitation for Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia
The purpose of this study was to understand the career stories of patients and the predicaments they have undergone. The study adopted a narrative method to reveal the process, from “understanding” to “acting”, of the career rehabilitation of patients with chronic schizophrenia in a community rehabilitation center. In the first part of this study, ten patients (aged from 29 to 49) were interviewed and their career stories were analyzed with the method of narrative form. The results showed that patients’ concept of career development had gradually deviated from a normal path since they suffered from psychotic diseases. Even when temporarily settled in a community rehabilitation center, they still sustained loss and pain induced by psychotic disorders. They also felt uncertainty for the future and a sense of fluidity that, as a result, stops them from settling down in a place and establishing a career. In the second part of this study, it was designed in terms of “acting”—to develop a narrative approach based career rehabilitation group in order to assist patients with chronic schizophrenia to resettle in their lives and careers. The result showed that twelve patients, aged 25 to 48, could re-narrate new and constructive career stories through group interventions, despite the fact that the group dynamic was limited by the patients’ psychotic symptoms. They reaffirmed the value of work, realized that the illness was only a part of their lives, and thus, accepted the possibility of a personal career plan for the future. These results supported the feasibility of the narrative approach based career rehabilitation group. Finally, the study presents a number of reflections from the researchers and suggestions for refining career rehabilitation strategies for patients with chronic schizophrenia in the future.
Keywords
career rehabilitation, chronic schizophrenia, narrative.
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