The Effectiveness of the returning to society program in improving the social skills of schizophrenic patients

Schizophrenia, is a chronic and debilitating disorder and in this disorder, social skills of patients get severely damaged. Returning to the society programs, in addition to the many features it has, can play a key role in improving the social skills of the patient. This program is one of the sub-programs of social living skills and it is independent. The present study examined the effectiveness of returning to the society programs in improving the social skills of schizophrenic patients. For this purpose, in the form of a quasiexperimental design, 20 patients with schizophrenia who were in relative improvement were chosen from available samples. They were randomly assigned to two groups of experiment and control. The social skills of the groups were assessed both before and after the study. Then, the experimental group received 16 sessions of the returning to society program. Results of covariance analysis indicated that performing this program is effective in improving the social skills of schizophrenic patients. Although these findings are preliminary but it is suggested for this program to be used in improving the damaged social skills in chronic mental disorders such as schizophrenia.