Responses of patient, their relatives and professionals to a "home-grown" videotape course on schizophrenia.

Abstract

The Richmond Mental Health Team of the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service produced a low-cost, 4-1/2 hour videotape course on schizophrenia using a multidisciplinary panel of team staff and an audience of patients, family members and community groups. The resource people interviewed were from the local area. An interview of a sample of recipients of the videotape course revealed that patient and family understanding of the illness, its treatment and the service delivery system had been elementary before the course. The program improved this understanding and reportedly reduced family conflict in certain areas. Professional consumers were generally pleased with the content and format of the video, but were dissatisfied with the technical quality. Although it was designed for use with patient and family groups in community mental health settings, professional recipients were using the videotape primarily to train staff and paraprofessionals. The manual that accompanied the videotape was seldom used. Given the cost effectiveness of using videotape to design psycho-educational programs, its potentially wide distribution, the staff development spin-offs and its community development applications, we encourage provincial and state services to produce their own videotape programs.