A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Expressed Emotions and Knowledge Regarding Relapse Prevention among Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia in a Selected Hospital, Salem

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on expressed emotions and knowledge regarding relapse prevention among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in a selected hospital, Salem. The design adopted was pre experimental one group pre test post test design. The non probability purposive sampling technique was used to select the 30 caregivers from Sri Gokulam Hospital. Expressed Emotions was assessed by using Level of Expressed Emotions Scale (LEE) and knowledge regarding relapse prevention was assessed by using structured self reporting questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The study finding revealed that during pre test, 12(40%) had low Expressed Emotions and 18(60%) had high Expressed Emotions. Whereas during post test, 23(76.67%) had low Expressed Emotions and 7(23.33%) had high Expressed Emotions. During pre test, 23(76.67%) had inadequate knowledge and 7(23.33%) had moderately adequate knowledge regarding relapse prevention. During post test, 23(76.67%) had adequate knowledge and 7(23.33%) had moderately adequate knowledge regarding relapse prevention. The pre test mean score on Expressed Emotions was 23.43±11.20 and knowledge regarding relapse prevention was 11.23±2.13. The post test mean score on Expressed Emotion was 14.33±8.20 and knowledge was 18.97±1.94. The obtained paired 't' test value was 31.13 which was significant at p≤0.05 (table value 2.05) level. This indicates that the structured teaching programme was effective in improving the level of knowledge regarding relapse prevention among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Hence the hypothesis H₁ was retained. The correlation between the Expressed Emotions and knowledge in pre test score was 0.15 and the post test score was 0.12. This revealed that there was a positive correlation. Hence the hypothesis H₂ was retained at p≤0.05 level. There was a significant association found between the Expressed Emotions, knowledge regarding relapse prevention with relationship to the client (χ² =13.18 at p≤0.01 and χ² =8.4 at p≤0.05 level respectively) Hence H₃ was retained. This study concluded that structured teaching programme was effective in increasing the knowledge regarding relapse prevention and decreasing the Expressed Emotions among caregivers of patients with schizophrenia.