The Assessment of Social Disability in Persons With a Diagnosis of Mental Disorder. Preliminary Data

Abstract

Social disability in persons diagnosed with mental disorder is one of the factors preventing them from achieving the broadly defined well-being, even when appropriate and effective treatment is applied. Improvement in the field of social disability is therefore one of the main challenges for the mental health and social welfare policy makers. The second version of the Groningen Social Disabilities Schedule (GSDS-II) is widely used in the assessment of social disability, however the relationship between its degree and many of the clinical and demographic factors have not been investigated thoroughly enough.

The objective of the study is to assess the degree of social disability using GSDS-II as well as to analyze the relationship between the degree of social disability and clinical, social and demographic factors, in patients with a mental disorder diagnosis of F20–F48 according to ICD-10, aged 18–65, in a day ward and an inpatient ward settings.

The paper presents the data gathered from a preliminary sample of 20 patients of both genders diagnosed with mental disorders who gave their informed consent to participate in the study, thus comprising 10% of the targeted total study sample.

Our study, performed on a larger, targeted sample, will provide a better insight into the social functioning of persons with a burden of mental disorder. A precise presentation of the social disability shall improve the model of care offered to these persons. Any possible parallel studies in other countries, employing analogical methodology, could allow for a cross-national and cross-cultural comparison of the received outcomes.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.