This study clarifies the loneliness experienced by people with schizophrenia, who live in the community and have a history of hospitalization, to offer higher quality support. Ten people with schizophrenia, with a history of hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital and living in the community for at least one year, were qualitatively analyzed through semi-structured interviews. The narratives of the participants were classified into seven categories: (1) lack of understanding of mental disorder; (2) prejudice against mental disorder that haunted self-evaluations; (3) loss of the sense of belonging; (4) relationship with people who were hesitant due to their schizophrenia; (5) disappointing attitude of medical staff during hospitalization; (6) lingering hurt from the coerced environment; and (7) mental and physical stability gained in a personal space. The results revealed that the loneliness experienced by people with schizophrenia was brought about by the traumatic experience of hospitalization, and the prejudice and self-stigma that made them lose a sense of belonging, on the other hands, their mental and physical condition stabilized in a personal space. To support the community life of people with schizophrenia, this study recommends their involvement in a manner that enhances a sense of belonging and the importance of respecting their loneliness.

The objective of this study was to elucidate the effective factors contributing to recovery, as perceived by users of mental health services. Additionally, the study aimed to examine recovery-oriented practices that align with users’ perspectives. A total of 369 users were administered questionnaires, and 162 users who provided responses without any missing data were included in the analysis. Five themes were extracted through the application of text mining techniques: “Supportive people,” “Cooperation with others,” “Hobbies,” “Thinking and acting for oneself,” and “Money for living.”

“Supportive people” serves as the foundation of relationships. The themes of “Cooperation with others” and “Money for living” gained through social participation led to the reconstruction of identity, while “Hobbies” and “Thinking and acting for oneself” enabled people to reconnect with their own identity and promoted a profound sense of self. As recovery-oriented practices, the study underscores the significance of cultivating partnerships and offering support in making life choices.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the structure of support provided by novice and experienced psychiatric nurses and their thoughts in situations where it is difficult to show empathy. Through semi-structured interviews with 8 psychiatric nurses and data analysis using the modified grounded theory approach, 1 core category, 5 categories, and 12 concepts were identified. Novice nurses placed importance on [engagement only here and now] based on the idea of [self-defense to avoid overburdening oneself]. In contrast, experienced nurses did not stay with [engagement only here and now], realizing the [difficulty and limitation of showing empathy], but adopted a <<perspective-taking approach>> to provide [support defined through inference] and [support that provides a sense of security through dialogue], with <trying to put oneself in patients’ shoes> as the foundation. The results revealed that in situations where it was difficult to show empathy, novice nurses provided one-sided support, whereas experienced nurses supported patients, adopting a multifaceted, interactive, and perspective-taking approach.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of individuals with depression who have made multiple suicide attempts and to obtain suggestions for nursing care to prevent such attempts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five individuals with depression who had attempted suicide twice or more. The data obtained was analyzed on the basis of Giorgi’s scientific phenomenological approach.

Individuals with depression had accumulated psychological distress and experienced [suicidal behavior due to persistent occlusive situations beyond their control]. They reached a state of thinking that death was the only solution, and the resultant psychological turmoil led to [impulsive suicidal behavior in search of release from painful reality] and [a rush to suicidal behavior driven by the desire to die]. At the same time, they also experienced hesitations and regrets, [consciously or unconsciously withdrawing from the decision of certain death]. Notably, even after the suicide attempt, the underlying problem causing the distress had not been resolved.

It was suggested that understanding suicide attempts from the perspective of individuals with depression is essential and that self-control and nursing support are crucial in helping these individuals escape from the state of being obsessed with suicidal thoughts.

The recovery aspect of support for schizophrenic patients has received much attention. Since home nursing is important for schizophrenic patients to continue living in the community, the purpose of this study was to clarify the structure of recovery and related factors of schizophrenic patients who used home nursing. A questionnaire was administered to 142 schizophrenic patients using home nursing at 18 facilities, and 116 were included in the analysis. Covariance structure analysis showed that “Socialization,” a factor assessed by the Life Skills, and “Self-reflectiveness,” a factor assessed by the metacognition, had an effect on the sense of place. Self-efficacy were also influenced by the sense of place and by their “Socialization” as assessed by the life skills. Recovery were influenced by the self-efficacy and by the scores on the sense of place. Our results suggest that socializing ability, objective perception of self and situation, self-efficacy, and sense of place affect recovery, with implications for the recovery aspect of support for schizophrenic patients who used home nursing.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of psychiatric nurses caring for schizophrenia patients with diabetes in the hospital and obtain their feedback. Twelve nurses who have cared for schizophrenic patients with diabetes in the hospital during the last 2 years completed semi-structured interviews.

We performed a qualitative and inductive analysis of the data obtained from the interviews in 17 cases. We extracted seven categories to describe these nurses’ experiences caring for their patients: “Psychiatric nurses aim to provide nursing care for both schizophrenia and diabetes in these patients”; “Nurses control patients’ treatment behaviors for diabetes”; “Nurses determine nursing care priorities for schizophrenia and diabetes”; “Recognizing the strengths of schizophrenia patients with diabetes”; “Feeling satisfaction providing nursing care for schizophrenia patients with diabetes”; “Feeling conflicted while supporting schizophrenia patients with diabetes”; and “Clues to improving diabetes care for schizophrenia patients.

Moreover, suitable support for schizophrenia patients with diabetes, such as diabetes group therapy, individualized diabetes treatment support, and multidisciplinary collaboration, was suggested to improve diabetes nursing practice in psychiatric wards.

Purpose: To assess the fulfillment of program goals of an empowerment support group for families who had a family member suffering from alcohol use disorder. The support group program was based on a solution-focused approach, and it was conducted by public health nurses who had received prior training.

Methods: Ten family members participated in three two-hour support group sessions. In each session, we recorded the dialogues, comments, and attitudes expressed by family members, and we analyzed these qualitative data to measure progress in achieving the program goals.

Ethical considerations: Approval was obtained from the University Nursing Research Ethics Review Committee.

Findings: The family members were in their 40s to 70s. Eight participants were spouses, and two were parents or children. All participants achieved the five program goals: i) participants verbalizing their feelings, ii) realization of not being alone, iii) constructing images of solutions, iv) choosing coping strategies from thinking frameworks, and v) implementing coping strategies adopted by participants. Eight participants achieved two goals: vi) considering more effective methods by reviewing implemented coping strategies, and vii) realization of one’s own inner power.

Discussion: Prior training of public health nurses showed the same effect as in our previous study in which we conducted the empowerment support group program. Thus, we believe that the prior training was appropriate and we found that a program conducted by public health nurses who received prior training can be effective.

The Recovery Self-Assessment Revised (RSA-R) is a scale for measuring service recovery orientation. This study examined the factorial and concurrent validity, internal consistency, and retest reliability of the Japanese version of the RSA-R for persons in recovery. Factor analysis revealed a four-factor model with CFI = 0.86 and RMSEA = 0.065. RSA-R’s total score was significantly higher than those of the Herth Hope Index (ρ = 0.390; p < 0.01) and Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (ρ = 0.612; p < 0.01). The factor scores were also significantly correlated with both scales. The Cronbach’s alpha for the overall scale was 0.94. The weighted kappa coefficients for the retest method showed moderate or better agreement for 22 items. Finally, the ICCs for all factor and total scores exceeded 0.85. In summary, the Japanese version of the RSA-R has a four-factor structure with insufficient factorial validity, good concurrent validity, internal consistency, and retest reliability.

In this study, we aimed to elucidate the nursing practice provided to such patients. We conducted semi-structured interviews of nurses who had worked for more than 3 years at a child and adolescent psychiatric unit. By utilizing qualitative descriptive research, we inductively classified, obstructed, and categorized the interview data verbatim. We interviewed 8 individual nurses in the child and adolescent psychiatric unit. We extracted the following 5 categories based on the interview: “give a sense of reassurance and safety to nurses and hospitalization,” “induce to rethink the situations and emotions following the aggressive behavior,” “induce patients’ motivation for behavior modification by helping them notice the unsuitability and disadvantages of aggressive behavior,” “induce patients to think about their behavior and the purpose of behavior modification,” and “induce patients to help them acquire proper behavior.” These nursing practices were performed in a timely manner when aggressive behavior occurred in the patients’ daily life and interpersonal situations. Environmental adjustments that promote verbalization and motivation for behavior correction by considering behavioral characteristics need to be the basis for modifying offensive behavior. In addition, it is important to establish adaptive behavior in daily life situations to increase adaptive behavior. It is necessary to select and provide necessary nursing care according to individual differences, such as the characteristics and severity of the disease-causing aggressive behavior, the factors affecting the behavior and the effects of such behavior.

To clarify the relationship between the characteristics of facilities with psychiatric wards (psychiatric facilities) and the contents of their novice nurse training programs, we conducted a survey, involving persons in charge of education at 1,619 psychiatric facilities nationwide. We examined the characteristics of their facilities and the contents of their novice nurse training programs using an anonymous, self-administered web questionnaire, and analyzed the collected data by the chi-square test. A total of 246 persons responded, 214 of whom were included for analysis (response rate: 13.2%). The chi-square test showed that the novice nurse training programs of these psychiatric facilities addressed issues specific to psychiatry, such as group support, the pathology and assessment of mental disorders, psychotropic medications, support for patients to regain independence, support for their families, and isolation, suicide prevention, and other medical safety measures (p < 0.05). The results suggested the necessity for institutions providing basic nursing education to foster students’ nursing competence, adopting various learning approaches.

This study clarified how children of mothers with mental illness (hereafter referred to as “children”) overcome their childhood difficulties, and how these experiences affect their lives. Using the method of life story research, the experiences of four adult children who meet in self-help groups were analyzed and interpreted.

During childhood, children lived in the moment, repressing their own feelings. In adulthood, these experiences of living in the moment and repressing their own feelings became traumatic and isolating, hindering recognition of their feelings.

The children were able to free themselves from isolation after interacting with their peers, re-assessing their lives, and overcoming their difficulties by sharing their experiences.

Supporters should serve as guardians for these children moreover, they should provide support for the entire family.