Attitude of society towards people with mental illness: The result of national survey of the Slovak population

Abstract

Aims:

Our survey has been aimed at identifying the society attitude towards people with mental illness in Slovakia.

Method:

Selected group comprised 1,624 adult respondents with 18 years of age as the bottom limit. We applied reduced 26-item Community Attitudes Toward Mentally Ill Scale (CAMI) to the survey of the society attitude towards people with mental illness.

Results:

Average score reached by the respondents reached 94.0800 points, indicating lower stigmatization rate than presumed. Further investigation revealed prejudice and stigmatizing attitudes at significant part of the population. The survey confirmed statistically significant differences at the attitudes in the terms of gender (t = −6.559, p = .000), age within the categories (χ² = 20.358, p = .000), education (F = 9.137, p = .000), socio-economic status (χ² = 50.487, p = .000) and occupation (χ² = 47.989, p = .000). We also confirmed statistically significant relation between the attitude and age (−.085**, p = .001).

Conclusion:

The survey confirmed rather neutral up to slightly positive attitude of the Slovak population towards people with mental illness. Existence of attitudes burdened with fear was revealed in some cases, indicating the need for continuous education of the society in this subject matter.

Keywords

Mental illness attitudes prejudice stigmatization society

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexandrovskij

(1987). Očami psychiatra [Through the lens of psychiatrist]. Bratislava: Smena.

Angermeyer

M. C.

Dietrich

(2006). Public beliefs about and attitudes towards people with mental illness: A review of population studies. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 113, 163–179.

Angermeyer

M. C.

Matschinger

(2005). Causal beliefs and attitudes to people with schizophrenia. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 186, 331–334.

Babic

(2010). Stigma and mental illness. Materia Socio Medica, 22, 43–46.

Barke

Nyarko

Klecha

(2011). The stigma of mental illness in Southern Ghana: Attitudes of the urban population and patients views. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 46, 1191–1202.

Bhugra

Malik

Ikkos

(2010). Psychiatry’s contract with society: Concepts, controversies, and consequences. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Corrigan

W. P.

Rowan

Green

Lundin

River

Uphoff-Wasowski

… Kubiak

M. A.

(2002). Challenging two mental illness stigmas: Personal responsibility and dangerousness. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 28, 293–309.

Dudeková

(2005). Humanizácia starostlivosti o hendikepovaných [Humanization of care for the disabled people]. História, 5, 22–25.

Evans-Lacko

Corker

Williams

Henderson

Thornicroft

(2014). Effect of the time to change anti-stigma campaign on trends in mental-illness-related public stigma among the English population in 2003–2013: An analysis of survey data. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1, 121–128.

10.

Ewalds-Kvist

Högberg

Lützén

(2013). Impact of gender and age on attitudes towards mental illness in Sweden. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 67, 360–368.

11.

Faltus

Janečková

(2008). Vliv duševních chorob na pracovní výkonnost [Impact of mental disorders on work performance]. Česká a slovenská Psychiatrie, 104, 313–319.

12.

Fazel

Långström

Hjern

Grann

Lichtenstein

(2009). Schizophrenia, substance abuse, and violent crime. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301, 2016–2023.

13.

Foucault

(1993). Dějiny šílenství. Hledání historických kořenů pojmu duševní choroby [History of Madness]. Praha, Czech Republic: NLN.

14.

Foucault

(1997). Psychologie a duševní nemoc [Mental Illness and Psychology]. Praha, Czech Republic: Dauphin Press.

15.

Girma

Möller-Leimkühler

M. A.

Müller

Dehning

Froeschl

Tesfaye

(2013). Public stigma against people with mental illness in the Gilgel Gibe field research center (GGFRC) in Southwest Ethiopia. Plos ONE, 8(12), 1–9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082116

16.

Godan

Brajković

Fortuna

Godan

(2008). The attitudes and stereotypes of supporting fields towards the persons with disabilities. Collegium Antropologicum, 32, 783–791.

17.

Guimón

(2010). Prejudice and realities in stigma. International Journal of Mental Health, 39, 20–43.

18.

Hiday

A. V.

(2006). Putting community risk in perspective: A look at correlations, causes and controls. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 29, 316–331.

19.

Hinshaw

P. S.

(2007). The mark of shame: Stigma of mental illness and an agenda for change. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

20.

Janík

(1987). Veřejnost a duševně nemocný [Public and the mentally ill person]. Praha, Czech Republic: Avicenum, zdravotnické nakladatelství.

21.

Kafka

Frank

Pečeňák

Pogády

Rakús

Safko

Š.

… Safková

. (1992). Psychiatria [Psychiatry]. Martin, SR: Osveta.

22.

Lauber

Anthony

Ajdacic-Gross

Rössler

(2004). What about psychiatrists attitude to mentally ill people? European Psychiatry: Journal of the European Psychiatric Association, 19, 423–427.

23.

Leff

Warner

(2006). Social inclusion of people with mental illness. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

24.

Letovancová

(2014). Schizophrenia as a cause of decreased quality of life for families living with mentally ill people. Social Work Identity in Europe an Academic and Professional Debate, Trnavská Univerzita, Trnava, Slovakia, 10th – 11th October 2013.

25.

Madianosa

Economou

Peppou

E. L.

Kallergis

Rogakou

Alevizopoulos

(2012). Measuring public attitudes to severe mental illness in Greece: Development of a new scale. European Journal of Psychiatry, 26, 55–67.

26.

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (2004). Social exclusion unit report summary. London, England: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Retrieved from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/social_exclusion_task_force/assets/publications_1997_to_2006/seu_leaflet.pdf

27.

Metha

Kassam

Leese

Butler

Thornicroft

(2009). Public attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland, 1994–2003. British Journal of Psychiatry, 194, 278–284.

28.

S. L.

Martin

J. L.

Romans

S. E.

(1995). A community attitudes towards the mentally ill. New Zealand Medical Journal, 108, 505–508.

29.

Ondriášová

(2005). Psychiatria [Psychiatry]. Martin, SR: Osveta.

30.

Pescosolido

A. B.

Monahan

Link

B. G.

Stueve

Kikuzawa

(1999). The public’s view of the competence, dangerousness, and need for legal coercion of persons with mental health problems. American Journal of Public Health, 89, 1339–1345.

31.

Peterson

K. J.

Skeem

Kennealy

Bray

(2014). How often and how consistently do symptoms directly precede criminal behavior among offenders with mental illness? Law and Human Behavior, 38, 439–449.

32.

Piat

(2000). The nimby phenomenon: Community residents concerns about housing for deinstitutionalized people. Health and Social Work, 25, 127–138.

33.

Práznovská

(2001). About schizophrenia and people with schizophrenia . Podpora zdravia, 5, 4–6.

34.

Short

Thomas

Mullen

Ogloff

P. R. J.

(2013). Comparing violence in schizophrenia patients with and without comorbid substance-use disorders to community controls. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128, 306–313.

35.

Song

Chang

Shih

Lin

Yang

(2005). Community attitudes towards the mentally ill: The results of a national survey of the Taiwanese population. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 51, 174–188.

36.

Stuart

(2003). Violence and mental illness: An overview. World Psychiatry, 2, 121–124.

37.

Stuart

Arboleda-Flórez

(2001). Community attitudes toward people with schizophrenia. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 245–252.

38.

Taylor

Dear

(1981). Scaling community attitudes toward the mentally ill. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 7, 225–240.

39.

Thornicroft

(2011). Ti, kterým se vyhýbáme: Diskriminace lidí s duševním onemocněním [Shunned. Discrimination against people with mental illness]. Praha, Czech Republic: Centrum pro rozvoj péče o duševní zdraví.

40.

TNS. (2013). Attitudes to mental illness 2012 research report. Retrieved from https://www.rethink.org/news-views/2013/11/attitudes-to-mental-illness

41.

Torrey

E. F.

(2011). Stigma and violence: Isn’t it time to connect the dots? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 37, 892–896.

42.

Vencovský

(1983). Čtení o psychiatrii [Reading on psychiatry]. Praha, Czech Republic: Avicenum.

43.

Vencovský

(1996). Psychiatrie dávných věků (Od Hippokrata k Pinelovi) [Psychiatry of ancient times (From Hippocrates to Pinel]. Praha, Czech Republic: Karolinum.

44.

Ventriglio

Torales

Bhugra

(2016). Psychiatry’s future. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 62, 599–600.

45.

Winkler

Mladá

Janoušková

Weissová

Tušková

Csémy

Evans-Lacko

(2016). Attitudes towards the people with mental illness: Comparison between Czech medical doctors and general population. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51, 1265–1273.