Indirect Consultation of Family and Staff in Workplace for Identified Patients with Schizophrenia

• Published in: Journal of Occupational Health Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 120 - 121
• Main Authors: Hiroto ITO, Kazue YAMADA, Yuji SASAKI
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: JAPAN SOCIETY FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH 01.07.1996
• ISSN: 1341-9145

In the mental health fields 1-3), we sometimes encounter indirect consultation requested by families or staff in the workplace rather than direct contact by schizophrenic identified patients (IPs) themselves at the first interview in Japan 4). We have difficulty in establishing direct contact with IPs in this situation, but to clarify factors affecting the outcome of such consultations is important in motivating IPs to undergo mental health treatment 5,6). We have introduced a mental health program in Tokyo Kenbikyoin Foundation for employees in private and public institutions outside the foundation since 1986 7-9) and have held indirect consultations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors that may contribute to the outcome of indirect consultations for employees. We hypothesized that the familys role might be influential in inducing the schizophrenic IP to realize the need for the treatment because of emotional closeness between the IP and family in a private atmosphere, and that the family could provide a more comfortable environment for the IP than the staff could. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all the case records. Of 304 men and women who consecutively received interviews by mental health professionals in Tokyo Kenbikyoin Foundation from April, 1986 to May, 1994, subjects who met all of the following three criteria were selected：(1) the consultation was initiated not by the IP himself or herself but by those who were close to the IP, such as family or staff; (2) we estimated that the IP has no history of mental health treatment; (3) we extracted schizophrenic symptoms. In this study, we used operational criteria including whether family or staff observed and reported delusion or hallucination in the IP at the first interview because it is difficult to ascertain schizophrenic symptoms by indirect consultation only. The mean age (SD) of the subjects was 30.9 (9.9) and half of the IPs were male.