الفهرس 
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Abstract
Aim of the study:
• Investigate the internalized stigma levels of the mentally ill patients hospitalized in the psychiatric units.
• Evaluate the effect of the mindfulness- based psycho-educational program on internalized stigma among psychiatric patients.
Research Hypothesis:
• As a result of mindfulness-based psycho-educational program, the internalized stigmatization score was lowered at post program implementation.
Research design:
• A quasi-experimental research design (pretest, posttest and follow up test after three months later) was used in the current study.
Setting of the study:
This study was conducted at the New Minia Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Hospital in New Minia City which is affiliated to the Ministry of Health. The hospital involves two grounds; the first ground involves the outpatient clinics, the pharmacy and the female inpatient unit. The second ground includes the administration office, the substance use treatment department, two male psychiatric inpatient units (one of which is free and the other is economic) and the nursing office. The capacity of this hospital is 53 beds for both sexes which serves the whole Minia governorate.
Study subjects:
A convenient sample of 50 male and female hospitalized psychiatric patients was included in the study.
Inclusion criteria
• Patients’ age ranges from 18 to 55 years.
• Patients who are able to communicate and interact effectively.
• Insightful patients.
Exclusion criteria
• Mental retardation) intellectual disability).
• Comorbid diagnosis of substance dependence.
• Acute stage of psychosis.
Data Collection Tools:
Data were collected through utilization of one tool which is divided into two parts:
Part (A): Sociodemographic and clinical data questionnaire:
It was developed by the researcher to assess personal and clinical data about psychiatric patients.
Part (B) Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ISMIS):
This scale is a 29-item instrument developed and grouped by Ritsher et al., (2003) into five subscales which include: “Alienation, Stereotype Endorsement, Discrimination Experience, Social Withdrawal, and Stigma Resistance subscales” The ISMIS total score was achieved by counting all items scores. It ranges from 29 to 116 points; the higher scores mean the more severity of the patient’s internalized stigmatization and the lower scores mean the higher stigma resistance.
Mindfulness based psycho-educational program:
It was implemented by the researcher through 4 phases as followings:
1- Assessment Phase:
This phase aimed at assessing internalized stigma among psychiatric inpatients; each patient was interviewed to collect the necessary data.
2- Planning (Preparatory phase):
The planning phase included the program strategy time, number of sessions, teaching methods and Medias that were used. In addition, the teaching place and the program facilities were checked for appropriateness. Numbers of sessions were 9 sessions, 4 sessions every week.
3- Implementation of the program:
The program was implemented for 10 subgroups, each subgroup contained five patients, and the researcher applied the program on them according to their availability.
4- Evaluation of the program:
Evaluation of the patient internalized stigma was done immediately posttest and 3monthes after the program implementation (follow up test).
The chief results of the current study were:
1. More than half of the studied psychiatric patients were males, 38% of them were in the age group more than 38 years old, had preparatory school. Also, 40% of them were single and the majority was live in rural areas. Moreover, less than one-third of them had schizophrenia, more than half had the disease for more than three years, and (34%) haven’t been hospitalized.
2. There were very high statistically significant differences between pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test among the patients regarding their internalized stigma subscales levels where the p-value is 0.000. Also, there were very high statistically significant differences between pre-test, post-tests, and follow-up test among the patients regarding their total internalized stigma levels where the p-value is 0.000.
3. There were no statistically significant differences between internalized stigma levels and all patients’ sociodemographic data except regarding their occupation at the pre-test and their residence at the post-test. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences between the total internalized stigma levels and patients’ clinical data except for their duration of hospitalization at the three times of the evaluation.
Conclusion
The current study results concluded that the majority of the studied psychiatric patients were having moderate to severe levels of the internalized stigma before the implementation of the mindfulness-based psycho-educational program which decreased greatly at post-test and to somewhat at follow-up test after 3 months later. There weren’t statistically significant differences between the total internalized stigma levels and all patients’ personal data except regarding occupation at pretest and residence at posttest. Also, there weren’t statistically significant differences between the total internalized stigma levels and patients’ clinical data except for their duration of hospitalization at the pre & post-test as well as at follow-up. Interestingly, there were very high statistically significant differences between the pre, post-test, and follow-up among the patients regarding their total internalized stigma level. These results indicated the important and observable role of mindfulness based-psycho-educational program in reducing internalized stigma among psychiatric patients.