Testing the effectiveness and/or appropriateness of the information material in The Alliance Programme used for Tshwana speaking patients suffering from schizophrenia in the South African context

Abstract

South Africa is a heterogeneous society. It is a multilingual, multicultural country with more than eleven official languages. It is a country that also has big educational and economic inequalities. These differences are pertinent barriers that often obstruct communication, also and especially in health communication. This study addresses such a problem, by first exploring the effectiveness and/or appropriateness of existing schizophrenia information material The Alliance Programme which was produced in the USA for universal consumption and is currently used in the South African context. In the study the externally produced schizophrenia information material is adapted to fulfil in the specific needs and preferences of the audience targeted in this study. The study was conducted based on the assumption that people need to access information that is relevant, easy to understand and appropriate to them in order to make informed decisions about their health. This study was conducted at the Weskoppies hospital in Pretoria (South Africa) among Tshwana-speaking patients suffering from schizophrenia. The specific aim of this study was to communicate the information in such a way that this group could use it optimally. Since this empirical study’s main aim was to evaluate and adapt the Alliance Programme to make it more suitable for the South African context, a formative research design was implemented. Usability testing was chosen as the research method. Literature review, individual semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and participant observation were employed as data collection methods. The data was analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. The findings of this study indicated that the adapted messages or information about schizophrenia did improve the patients’ reception of the information. It was then concluded in this study that messages or information should either be adapted or created to suit the needs of a specific audience. This study also recommended that in order to make sure information (about schizophrenia) is communicated effectively and/or appropriately to any group (of patients suffering from schizophrenia), a participatory communication design should be used.