The Intervention
The psychoeducation programme in HBUK
has been started since 2003. It is a structured
educational programme for patients with
schizophrenia and consists of five modules
covering five important subjects that are
understanding patient’s illness,
understanding patient’s treatment, relapse
prevention, crisis intervention and healthy
life-style. The psychoeducation programme
was conducted by trained paramedical (staff
nurses, medical assistants, physiotherapist)
using structured modules. The sessions were
conducted in a group of eight to twelve
patients. Patients were encouraged to
complete all the five modules prior to
discharge. The sessions were conducted in
the language understood by the patient.
Study Instruments
M.I.N.I is a short structured diagnostic
interview. Even though it has not been
validated in Malaysia, it has been used
widely in local studies. The 18-item BPRS
scale was used to access the severity of
symptoms. It generally found to have good
inter-rater reliability27. The main outcome
was measured using Schedule for the
assessment of insight3 which is an
interviewer-rated rating scale which has a
score from 0-14. It assesses: awareness that
one is suffering from an illness (0-6); ability
to re-label symptoms as signs of mental
illness (0-4); acceptance of treatment (0-4).
It has been widely used for clinical
researches involving patients with
schizophrenia including local studie