Experience of Psychosocial Rehabilitation; Perspectives of Depressed Adolescents

Abstract

Abstract Given the multifaceted character of depression and its related symptoms, an adolescent living with it is at increased risk for a wide range of adverse events. This research aimed to understand and characterize the psychosocial rehabilitation experiences of depressed adolescent participants in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. A cross-sectional semi-structured interview design influenced by an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) technique was adopted. A nonprobability, purposeful approach to sampling was employed to recruit twenty-one adolescents (6 males, 15 females) from the community diagnosed with depression, discharged from admission for a month, and undergoing psychosocial rehabilitation. Using separate interviews, we gathered data and analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis to produce themes and sub-themes. These were presented with the participants' direct quotations. We discovered that the perspectives of adolescents' psychosocial rehabilitation experience include hopelessness and suicide ideation, coping difficulties, undesirable attitudes from support networks, challenges related to school, and isolation. Participants suggested appropriate therapeutic environments, encouraging support systems, and the media's role in preventing and treating depression among young people as rehabilitation approaches that could assist adolescents realize their “hoped-for” selves despite the diagnosis with depression. These results shed light on the tragic realities faced by depressed adolescents, confirming the urgent necessity to focus on their plights to aid in their rehabilitation and develop their coping strategies for a better life.