Case report of integrated supported employment for a person with severe mental illness.

OBJECTIVE: We illustrate the implementation of an integrated supported employment (ISE) program that augments the individual placement and support model with social skills training in helping people with severe mental illness (SMI) achieve and maintain employment. METHOD: A case illustration demonstrates how ISE helped a 41-year-old woman with SMI to get and keep a job with support from an employment specialist. An independent, blinded assessor conducted data collection of employment information, including self-efficacy and quality of life, at pretreatment and at 3-month, 7-month, 11-month, and 15-month follow-up assessments. RESULTS: The participant eventually stayed in a job for 8 months and reported improved self-efficacy and quality of life. CONCLUSION: The case report suggests that ISE could improve the employment outcomes of people with SMI. Moreover, changes in the participant's self-efficacy and quality of life were shown to be driven by the successful employment experience.

Effect of a qigong exercise programme on elderly with depression.

OBJECTIVES: This report released findings of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Hong Kong to further our understanding of the psychosocial effects of qigong on elderly persons with depression. DESIGN: Eighty-two participants with a diagnosis of depression or obvious features of depression were recruited and randomly assigned into the intervention and comparison group. The intervention group was given a 16-week period of Qigong practice while the comparison group participated in a newspaper reading group with same duration and frequency. RESULTS: After eight weeks of qigong practice, the intervention group participants outstripped themselves in improvement in mood, self-efficacy and personal well being, and physical and social domains of self-concept when compared with comparison subjects. After 16 weeks of practice, the improvement generalized to the daily task domain of the self-concept. CONCLUSIONS: This report shows that regular qigong practice could relieve depression, improve self-efficacy and personal well being among elderly persons with chronic physical illness and depression.

Reliability of the Chinese version of the perceived family burden scale.

The study examined reliability of the 24-item Chinese version of the perceived family burden scale (CPFBS), which is a measure of behaviors associated with Chinese people with schizophrenia and the impacts of these behaviors on caregivers and relatives. Many patients with mental illness are returning to the community and living with families. Unfortunately, family members who have to live with the patients experience a sense of burden. The CPFBS is able to measure the perceived burden of the family, which enables therapists to formulate the most appropriate family intervention for them. The CPFBS was translated and culturally adapted from the English version. Some 21 main caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia were asked to rate the items on the scale by a competent administrator through a telephone interview (this was carried out twice, with 1 day between each interview). The results showed that CPFBS had high internal consistency (alpha=0.85) and acceptable test-retest reliability (r=0.86). We suggest that the CPFBS is ready to be used by clinicians and researchers in the study on family burden of individuals with schizophrenia in Hong Kong and in Chinese communities in other countries.