An Effectiveness Study of a Narrative Life-design Vocational Counselling Paradigm for High-functioning Youth with Psychosis = 為患有思覺失調高功能青年人而設的敍事人生規劃生涯輔導範式的有效性研究
Project title
An Effectiveness Study of a Narrative Life-design Vocational Counselling Paradigm for High-functioning Youth with Psychosis = 為患有思覺失調高功能青年人而設的敍事人生規劃生涯輔導範式的有效性研究
Principal Investigator
Department
Grant Awarding Body
Research Grants Council
Grant Type
Faculty Development Scheme
Project Code
UGC/FDS15/M03/19
Amount awarded
HK$986,458
Funding Year
2019-2020
Duration of the Project
28 months
Status
Completed
Abstract
According to Hong Kong Census and Statistic Department (2018), the number of people aged from 15 to 24 who were using psychiatric specialty hospital service was gradually increased from 50,990 in 2015 to 58,016 in 2017. Along with high-quality evidence-based intervention treatments, vocational recovery that encourages them to embrace a life with meaningful purpose and make a social contribution are equally important to their recovery. In vocational rehabilitation, current supported employment services cater more to adults with mental illness in increasing their employment and job retention while the career life-planning education programme in mainstream schools rarely reach out to young people with psychosis. There is a lack of vocational counselling model and service for this group with the aim to help them create their career and life that are consistent with their dreams and preferred identities. In this interdisciplinary collaboration study, a narrative practitioner, a vocational counsellor, a mental health social worker, two occupational therapists and a psychiatrist will work closely together to develop a new vocational counselling paradigm for high-functioning young people with psychosis on the basis of Savickas’ Life-design Discourse. Guided by the narrative life-design paradigm, we propose a constellation of 3I+2G+1I (three 60-minute individual sessions plus two 120-minute group sessions, and plus one more 90-minute individual session) to help the young people map out their life portraits according to their unique talents and preferred identity, and formulate a life design with an action plan that opens up a flexible psychosocial space consistent with their preferred identities. To promote evidence-based intervention, a mixed design of longitudinal quantitative and qualitative study will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. The hypothesis is that the proposed narrative life-design vocational counselling programme is effective to help high-functioning young people with psychosis increase their self-esteem, their employment readiness, their career adaptability, their awareness of their inner resource, their understanding of their preferred identities and the motivation for searching for meaningful work. In quantitative study, one hundred and two 15-to-25- year-old Chinese high functioning youth with psychosis will be recruited from a local mental health hospital and then randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. A set of standardised psychometric scales at four time points (pre-test, post-test, three-month follow-up and six-month follow up) will be administrated to the participants. the qualitative part of study is crucially important. Through narrative inquiry, we will collect and analyse stories from young participants about their experiences of psychosis, career, personal values, life dream, and hopes for recovery from the narrative life-design group and individual sessions, the semi-structured individual interview at four different time points and the Future Career Autobiographies written by the young participants. The potential outcome of the Narrative Life-design Vocational Counselling programme will be aimed at helping high-functioning youth with psychosis to increase their aspiration for career and make a dare-to-dream step-by-step career plan that matches their unique interests, talents, and preferred identities. The development and testing of this paradigm are expected to inform government and service providers on the vitality of recovery-based career counseling service for high-functioning young people with psychosis.