The effect of group therapy activities on social dysfunction among patients with serious mental illness

Background: The number of mental disorders: schizophrenia is increasing every year, social dysfunction is one of the negative behaviours of schizophrenia patients, namely: not wanting to socialize. Group activity therapy: socialization is an effort to facilitate the ability to socialize with isolated patients with social relationship problems. Purpose: To determine the effect of group therapy activities on social dysfunction among patients with serious mental illness. Method: The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental design with a pre-post test approach. A sample size of 34 patients who experienced social dysfunction was taken in a way purposive sampling with criteria; adult patients and above, can read and write, patients in inpatient and rehabilitation settings, communicate well and have a nursing diagnosis of social dysfunction. The analysis used is univariate and bivariate. The statistical test used is the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The analysis in the intervention group are available there were significant changes in signs, symptoms and social functioning (p-value 0.001), in the control group significant changes in signs, symptoms (p-value 0.001) and no significant changes in the patient's social function (p-value 0.798) before and after group activity therapy: socialization. There was no significant difference (p-value 0.336) in signs and symptoms and there was a significant difference in social function (p-value 0.001) after group activity therapy: socialization between the control and intervention groups. Conclusion: There is an influence of group therapy activities on social dysfunction among patients with serious mental illness in rehabilitation ward at the West Java Provincial Mental Hospital.