2.2. Participants
Psychosis, psychosis, psychiatric, psychotic disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar, DSM-5
DISORDERS
The study inclusion criteria were as follows:Caregivers of young adults who had a first episode of psychosis within the last 3 years. The young adults were younger than 35 years and had forms of psychosis, including schizophrenia spectrum, bipolar, and other related psychotic disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5; [The caregivers had offered care for at least 1 year.YAIR who had the capacity to provide informed consent and to respond to the questions in the assessment interviews were recruited.The exclusion criteria of the study were as follows:Caregivers who had difficulties in understanding the program contents because, for instance, they had been diagnosed with psychosis or developmental disabilities were excluded.YAIR who refused to participate in regular psychiatric consultations were excluded.Both the caregivers and YAIR participated in this project voluntarily. We recruited participants through one non-governmental organization (NGO) and two Early Assessment Service for Young People with Early Psychosis (EASY) clinics at Castle Peak Hospital and Kowloon Hospital in Hong Kong. The NGO involved in this project offers the largest number of caregiver programs in Hong Kong. Through the promotion of the research project among their members, the NGO’s social workers referred interested caregivers to the research team. The research team further promoted the project in the outpatient service units of two EASY program teams by sending research assistants to the units. With the assistance of NGO and EASY teams, we contacted and invited 174 caregivers who had applied for our caregiver program. Some caregivers were excluded from the project due to ineligibility (We further invited the YAIR under the care of the 65 caregivers to participate in this study. Some young adults were excluded from the study because their caregivers did not want the young adults to know they had participated in the course or because they were not interested (