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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify the effect of the empwerment program for the people with psychioatric disabilities.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify the direction for developing the programs aimed to empower the people with psychiatric disabities.
Methods: The study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were selected from the six community mental health centers in Kyunggi Province in South Korea. A total of 71 participants were assigned to either the experimental (n=31) or to the control (n=40) group. The integrated empowerment program consisted of 8 weekly sessions. Data were collected from June 10 to August 26, 2011. The outcome variables were knowledge of human right, empowerment, and quality of life. Data were analyzed using x2 test, t-test, and ANCOVA
Results: There were no statistically significant differences in demographic variables or outcome variables except knowledge of human right between the two groups before intervention. The quality of life increased significantly more in the experimental group than the control group (t = 2.536, p =.014). The knowledge of human right and the empowerment increased after program in the experimental group but not significantly changed (F = 0.352, p =.555; t = 1.698, p =.095).
Conclusion: As a result, the integrated empowerment program was effective in improving the quality of life for people with psychiatric disabilities. Follow-up study with a revised program or longer sessions aimed to empower the people with psychiatric disabilities is needed.
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(2010-0006812).