How Do People With Schizophrenia Manage Their Daily Life? A Qualitative Study

Due to the rising number of long-term mental health conditions, there has been a shift in therapeutic focus from curing these conditions, to living a meaningful life with them. Self-management is described as the ability to live with the emotional, life role and medical consequences of long-term conditions such as schizophrenia. However, the perspective of people with schizophrenia on self-management in current literature is missing. A lack of understanding of strategies used by people with schizophrenia to self-manage, could adversely affect the use of self-management interventions. Therefore, this study aims to identify how people with schizophrenia manage their daily life. Semi-structured interviews (n = 9) were conducted in a qualitative descriptive design. The study is reported by using the COREQ checklist. All participants, recruited through purposive sampling, have been stabilised after a schizophrenic episode and have been reintegrated into their community. The data were analysed through thematic analysis. Self-management for people with schizophrenia is an individualised process that revolves around performing day-to-day activities according to the participant's wishes. In addition, participants tried to prevent relapse by self-managing daily life. Personal-, social- and schizophrenia-related factors were seen as barriers and/or facilitators in their self-management. These barriers and/or facilitators were self-managed using daily activities. Current self-management interventions for this population often aim at improving medication adherence. Self-management interventions facilitated by health care professionals should (i) focus more on supporting patients in finding their daily structure through meaningful activities and (ii) be mindful of the duality contained within self-management of people with stabilised schizophrenia.