PERSPECTIVE ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESSES: A SURVEY OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS OF ABBOTTABAD
Abstract
Background: Mental Health problems are widespread globally and are the leading causes of disability. The lives of people living with mental illnesses are often drastically altered by the symptoms of the illness and made worse by the society’s reaction. Stigmatizing attitude among general population is prevalent. Relatively less research has been done to explore the attitude of health care providers towards mental illness especially so in Pakistan. This study aims to investigate views of healthcare providers of Abbottabad regarding mental illnesses. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in major hospitals and medical institutes of Abbottabad wherein 640 self-administered questionnaires based on Opening Minds Scale for Healthcare Providers (OMS-HC) were distributed among healthcare providers selected through non-probability convenience sampling; 553 (86.41%) were returned. Data was collected from June to September 2016 and analyzed using SPSS-16.0. Results: The mean age of the participants is 26.12 years±7.612. Majority 346 (62%) were medical students, 60 (10.8%) were teachers, 50 (9%) were house officers, 70 (12.7%) were trainee medical officers, 27 (4.9%) were consultants. There were 313 (56.6%) females. The highest degree of stigma was observed among the ‘Attitudes’ of the people while it was relatively lower in Disclosure and Help Seeking domain and least in the factor of Social Distance. Conclusion: Stigma associated with mental illness is prevalent among healthcare providers.Keywords: Mental illness; Stigma; Health Care Providers; Attitude; Social Distance; Help seeking; DisclosureReferences
Osborn DP. The poor physical health of people with mental illness. West J Med 2001;175(5):329–32.
Corrigan PW, Watson AC. Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World Psychiatry 2002;1(1):16–20.
CDC. Attitudes Towards Mental Illness. [online]. Centers for Disease Control. [cited 2016 Mar 20]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/Mental_Health_Reports/pdf/BRFSS_Full%20Report.pdf
Kadri N, Sartorius N. The global fight against the stigma of schizophrenia. PLoS Med 2005;2(7):e136.
Lauber C, Rössler W. Stigma towards people with mental illness in developing countries in Asia. Int Rev Psychiatry 2007;19(2):157–78.
Rao H, Mahadevappa H, Pillay P, Sessay M, Abraham A, Luty J. A study of stigmatized attitudes towards people with mental health problems among health professionals. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 2009;16(3):279–84.
Nordt C, Rossler W, Lauber C. Attitudes of Mental Health Professionals Toward People With Schizophrenia and Major Depression. Schizophr Bull 2005;32(4):709–14.
Aruna G, Mittal S, Yadiyal MB, Acharya C, Acharya S, Uppulari C. Perception, knowledge, and attitude toward mental disorders and psychiatry among medical undergraduates in Karnataka: A cross-sectional study. Indian J Psychiatry 2016;58(1):70–6.
Naeem F, Ayub M, Javed Z, Irfan M, Haral F, Kingdom D. Sigma and psychiatric illness a survey of attitude of medical students and doctors in Lahore, Pakistan. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2006;18(3):46–9.
Waqas A, Zubair M, Ghulam H, Wajih Ullah M, Zubair Tariq M. Public stigma associated with mental illnesses in Pakistani university students: a cross sectional survey. Peer J 2014;2:e698.
Ahmedani BK. Mental Health Stigma: Society, Individuals, and the Profession. J Soc Work Values Ethics 2011;8(2):4–16.
Papish A, Kassam A, Modgill G, Vaz G, Zanussi L, Patten S. Reducing the stigma of mental illness in undergraduate medical education: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Med Educ 2013;13(1):141.
Poreddi V, Thimmaiah R, Math SB. Attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students. J Neurosci Rural Pract 2015;6(3):349–54.
Adebowale TO, Adelufosi AO, Ogunwale A, Abayomi O, Ojo TM. The impact of a psychiatry clinical rotation on the attitude of Nigerian medical students to psychiatry. Afr J Psychiatry (Johannesbg) 2012;15(3):185–8.
Reddy JP, Tan SM, Azmi MT, Shaharom MH, Rosdinom R, Maniam T, et al. The effect of a clinical posting in psychiatry on the attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry and mental illness in a Malaysian medical school. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2005;34(8):505–10.
Steele K, Berman C. The day the voices stopped. New York: Basic Books; 2001.
Hassan T, Ahmed SO, White AC, Galbraith N. A postal survey of doctors' attitudes to becoming mentally ill. Clin Med (Lond) 2009;9(4):327–32.
Hassan TM, Asmer MS, Mazhar N, Munshi T, Tran T, Groll D. Canadian Physicians’ Attitudes towards Accessing Mental Health Resources. Psychiatry J 2016;2016:9850473.
Brooks SK, Gerada C, Chalder T. Review of literature on the mental health of doctors: Are specialist services needed? J Ment Health 2011;20(2):146–56.
Corrigan PW, Green A, Lundin R, Kubiak MA, Penn DL. Familiarity with and social distance from people who have serious mental illness. Psychiatr Serv 2001;52(7):953–8.
Angermeyer MC, Matschinger H, Corrigan PW. Familiarity with mental illness and social distance from people with schizophrenia and major depression: testing a model using data from a representative population survey. Schizophr Res 2004;69(2-3):175–82.
Anagnostopoulos F, Hantzi A. Familiarity with and social distance from people with mental illness: Testing the mediating effects of prejudiced attitudes. J Community Appl Soc Psychol 2011;21(5):451–60.
Smith A,Cashwell C. Social Distance and Mental Illness: Attitudes Among Mental Health and Non-Mental Health Professionals and Trainees. Prof Couns 2011;1(1):13–20.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
