| Schizophrenia is a common chronic mental disorder.Although 70% of schizophrenic patients response to medication treatment, 50% of themare non-adherent that can lead to the in-effectiveness andthe increase costs of treatment.The important of factors associated with medication non-adherence are lack of medication-label understanding and self-medication management skill. In view of this, the project was conducted as a pilot study. Objectives: This study aim to examine the effect of group counseling to enhance medication label understanding andself-medication management skill in schizophrenic patients. Methods: The one-group, quasi-experimental, pre- and post- test design was conductedas with purposive sampling method to recruit subjects into the study. Eighteen females who were diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized at psychiatric ward of psychiatric hospital, UbonRatchathani during August to November 2016 were eligible to participate in the study. The group counseling program consisted of 3 phases:The first phase focused on baseline assessment of self-medications management skill and self-confidence. The second phase focused on the subject-problems solving and the post-group counseling assessment.Finally, phone call monitoring for the subjects who were discharged from the hospital. Two outcomes, self-medication skill and self-confidence, were evaluated before and after implementation.Data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and non-parametric statistics.Results: The average score of self-medication skill after participated group counseling was 4.54 (n=13) improved significant difference from the average score at baseline3.22 (n=18) (p= 0.007). Moreover, the mean self-confidence scores were increased from 3.11 at baseline to 3.92 after the intervention.The difference between two means of self-confidence groups is statistically significantwith p=0.026.The score of self-medication skills were 0-5 points and the rating scale of self-confidence were0-5 (0 = no confidence and 5= very high confidence).Conclusion:Subjects who participated in the study demonstrated significant gains inself-medication management skills and highlevels of self-confidences. The further study is needed to investigate more deep in the group counseling program and the effect on long term adherence. |