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Violence Against Patients with Schizophrenia from their Surrounding Environment: A Qualitative Study in Turkey

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Abstract

Patients with schizophrenia are mostly given care by their parents in Turkey. This brings the burden of caring for the parents and increases the risks of being exposed to violence within the surrounding environment for the patients with schizophrenia. This research aims at determining the violence facing patients with schizophrenia from their surrounding environment. The research sample consists of 36 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to the criteria of DSM-IV receiving outpatient care. The data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analysed by thematic content analysis method. The research findings reveal both the violence victimization of patients and their expectations from their families as well as their surrounding environment. The findings demonstrate that almost all the research participants have been prone to verbal violence while the majority of them faced physical violence in their family life as well as social life. The patients mostly anticipate respect, recognition, and a decent living just as other members of society. The research shows that patients with schizophrenia expect their family and their surrounding environment to treat them just as the other members of society. For a decent living for those patients in the society, it is of vital importance to challenge existing prejudice against them while also supporting services for awareness-raising. Moreover, a set of services to strengthen the relations and to provide support to both the patient and the family within the society should be developed and generalized.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Burcu Yakut Çakar for her thoughtful comments and translation of the paper.

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The author(s) didn’t receipt of any financial support for the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dr Sami Ulus Research and Training Hospital of Women’s and Children’s, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey

    İpen İlknur Ünlü

  2. KTO Karatay University, Karatay, Konya, Turkey

    Yüksel Baykara Acar

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  1. İpen İlknur Ünlü
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  2. Yüksel Baykara Acar
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Contributions

YBA: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, formal analysis, supervision, validation, writing—review & editing. İİÜ: Conceptualization, data curation, investigation, formal analysis, formal analysis, validation, Writing–original draft, writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Yüksel Baykara Acar.

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Ünlü, İ.İ., Baykara Acar, Y. Violence Against Patients with Schizophrenia from their Surrounding Environment: A Qualitative Study in Turkey. J. Psychosoc. Rehabil. Ment. Health 9, 159–167 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-021-00248-2

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