IntroductionEstablishing structured peer support in mental health, particularly for people with schizophrenia, as a psychosocial intervention is early in low and middle-income countries like India. Before implementing and understanding the effectiveness of peer support service and which mode of peer support delivery will be suitable for our culture, our study aimed to understand if peer support would be accepted by the different participants like persons with schizophrenia, caregivers and mental health professionals in a tertiary care center in Chennai, India.MethodsThe study was conducted at the outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary psychiatric care facility in Chennai, India. A cross-sectional study method was used. Consecutive persons diagnosed with schizophrenia and caregivers of persons with schizophrenia, who attended the outpatient department, and mental health professionals within and outside the facility who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria participated in the study. A structured questionnaire purposefully developed for the study was administered to the different study participants. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Categorical variables were expressed as frequency and percentages, while the continuous variables were expressed as mean and standard deviation.ResultsA total of 155 participants (52 persons with schizophrenia, 50 caregivers and 53 mental health professionals) completed the survey. The majority of the participants (90.4% of persons with schizophrenia, 86% caregivers and all mental health professionals) welcomed peer support interventions. The participants wanted peers to help persons with schizophrenia achieve personal goals to enhance their mental health and day to day living with an emphasis on independent living and interpersonal and social relationships and help them achieve medication and treatment-related goals toward recovery. Understanding the role of a peer support volunteer and transitioning from a “person with schizophrenia” to a “peer support volunteer” by persons with schizophrenia was thought most challenging.ConclusionThe results highlight the potential acceptability of peer support across several stakeholders in the care of schizophrenia in a low and middle-income country context. The results may guide the implementation of a peer support volunteer programme as an essential mechanism of delivering psychosocial interventions for persons with schizophrenia.

Psychosocial rehabilitation (PSR) interventions help individuals with schizophrenia and severe mental disorders learn/relearn skills to deal with social and occupational difficulties. Some patients cannot engage in face-to-face sessions for all intervention sessions due to factors like distance, time and cost. Hence, the study aimed to assess the effectiveness of additional contact through telephonic sessions on social and occupational functioning among persons with schizophrenia receiving face-toface psychosocial interventions. Case records of patients in the PSR (psychosocial rehabilitation) program who received either weekly face-to-face interventions (n = 40) or a combination of monthly face to face with interim weekly telephonically delivered sessions (n = 43) were selected. Baseline and 6 months data on socio-demographic and SOFS scores were retrieved. The reasons for adding telephonic intervention were the distance from home (46.5%), financial constraints (23.3%), lack of motivation (13.9%) and lack of family support to attend sessions (16.3%). At baseline, there were no differences between the two groups in their socio-demographic profiles. There was a significant reduction in the SOFS scores at 6-months in both groups compared to baseline but no difference between the two groups. Combining regular telephonic interventions to face-to-face PSR sessions is as effective as more frequent face-to-face only interventions to those patients who cannot attend for interventions in person. Further research needs to examine the effectiveness of the adjunct telephone interventions using a more robust study design.