Neurocognitive function impairment attracts much attention as an important factor affecting the level of social functioning in patients with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia. It forms the basis of learning disability and thus poses a major threat to psychosocial intervention. In this report, we classify 13 intervention methods corresponding to specific cognitive disorders. We also indicate the importance of individual assessment prior to psychosocial interventions, commenting on the reality of the“social functioning interview,”a semistructured pre‒intervention interview in social skills training(SST). Referring to the fact that most of the 13 intervention methods are implemented in SST, a psychosocial intervention, some of these methods are introduced in the context of the“basic training model.”Furthermore, four possible inventions that can be incorporated into SST are described. Given that many of the interventions described in this report are also applicable to clinical settings(e.g., personal interviews), we hope that applications will not be limited to SST, but extended to routine clinical practice for improvements in patients with cognitive disorders, eventually leading to improvements in their social lives.
Social Life Improvement by Social Skills Training(SST)―Intervention with a View to Neurocognitive Function Impairment―
Department of Psychiatry, Yoyogi Hospital
Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica
115: 399-405, 2013
<Keywords:social skills training, cognitive disorders, errorless learning, overlearning, training in social perception>