Reconstructing Family Communication After Social Rehabilitation: A Pancawaluya Framework for Families in Mental Health Recovery

Social rehabilitation efficacy for individuals with mental illness hinges on the family system’s capacity to navigate the transition from institutional to domestic settings. This interpretive qualitative study examines how the Sundanese cultural value of Pancawaluya can reconstruct family communication patterns often constrained by protective control and emotional ambivalence. Interviews with 12 families and five facilitators reveal that relational recovery is hindered less by clinical symptoms than by distorted cultural interpretations legitimizing asymmetrical communication. This article proposes a Pancawaluya-based framework for systemic intervention, facilitating five transformations: redefining cageur (health) as systemic balance; bener (rightness) as dialogical justice; bageur (goodness) as emotional openness; pinter (intelligence) as relational reflexivity; and singer (vigilance) as collective resilience. These findings extend systemic therapy scholarship by integrating indigenous relational ethics into clinical practice within Global South contexts.