Schizophreni A Case Study Of Assertive Community-Based Approach

Along with having difficulty in social and vocational functioning, individuals with schizophrenia have a hard time adapting into the community. It is hard for them to live at home and do daily activities such as drive a car, go shopping, make meals, or clean the house. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a community-based approach in which patients can live at home, as opposed to in hospitals, and receive constant treatment. The goal of ACT is to provide service to individuals who have schizophrenia and help them increase the quality of community living, reduce hospitalization, and increase overall daily functioning. A team of about ten clinicians shares caseloads and the responsibilities of one patient. Team members have daily meetings
In a recent case study, a Schizophrenic individual named Joseph found it extremely difficult to engage in treatment, particularly social interactions in general. He was nonadherent to almost all medication and for most of his adult life he was in and out of hospitals and homeless shelters. Due to his lack of engagement in treatment, he was placed into the ACT program where team members were in daily contact with Joseph and visited him at his home. At the beginning of treatment, Joseph seemed to lack insight about his symptoms and the ACT team took a psychoeducational approach in order to educate him about schizophrenia. Eventually Joseph expressed that he had severe social anxiety in accordance with his schizophrenia and the ACT team actually implement CBT exercises into treatment so that Joseph could identify and challenge the negative beliefs associated with his social anxiety. By the end of treatment, the ACT team was able to fully engage Joseph into treatment by working with him towards creating communicative skills that would allow him to interact with other people (Smith & Yanos,
It is important for patients to focus on their conscious awareness of themselves in order to enhance their sense of self and the presence of the external environment. In a typical group session, clinicians using a DMT approach can use deep breathing techniques and eye exercises to help bring the patients into a state of mindfulness. Once all patients in the group become consciously aware, clinicians can focus on using movement techniques that incorporate the entire group by instructing the members to move their heads to one side, make eye contact with someone, and eventually shake their hand. Since DMT is used as form of communication for schizophrenics, making eye contact with someone is the first step of expression. After a few sessions, clinicians work with patients in the group to perform movements that involves the entire group as a whole, such as standing in a circle and passing a ball around (Leahy,