Abstract
Drug dependent persons tend to be repeatedly hospitalized. The purpose of this study was to describe how drug dependent persons experience their repeated hospitalizations to psychiatric hospitals and to discuss the possibility and problems in nursing care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven users of rehabilitation facilities who had histories of multiple hospitalizations to the psychiatric hospitals. Results were as follows: Concerning drug abuse, they had guilty feelings, which generated persecutory delusions among them. They could neither trust medical staff nor verbalize their feelings. Their inability to communicate their feelings verbally could be contrasted with those who attended peer-supported rehabilitation facilities. The latter persons found words to express their experiences. In the latter's recovery process, they also found someone who would be willing to offer help and would never give up on them. Lack of understanding concerning drug dependence on the part of health care professionals was an often talked topic of their narratives. These results suggested that nurses should help drug dependent persons work through their guilty feelings. Nurses should provide them information relevant to their recovery such as self-help group and peer supported facilities. Furthermore, generating hope and belief in recovery is very important for drug dependents as well as nurses.
