Attitudes towards people with mental illness among psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, involved family members and the general population in a large city in Guangzhou, China

International Journal of Mental Health Systems

Robert A Rosenheck²  Hongbo He³  Xini Huang³  Minglin Zhang³  Sha Nie¹  Ni Fan³  Bin Sun³ 

[1] Department of Nursing, Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, China;Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA;Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, China

关键词: Attitude;    Mental Illness;    Survey;   

Others  :  1139361
DOI  :  10.1186/1752-4458-8-26

 received in 2014-02-12, accepted in 2014-06-29,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Purpose

Stigma towards people with mental illness is believed to be widespread in low and middle income countries.

Methods

This study assessed the attitudes towards people with mental illness among psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, involved family members of patients in a psychiatric facility and the general public using a standard 43-item survey (N = 535). Exploratory factor analysis identified four distinctive attitudes which were then compared using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) among the four groups, all with ties to the largest psychiatric facility in Guangzhou, China, adjusting for sociodemographic differences.

Results

Four uncorrelated factors expressed preferences for 1) community-based treatment, social integration and a biopsychosocial model of causation, 2) direct personal relationships with people with mental illness, 3) a lack of fear and positive views of personal interactions with people with mental illness, 4) disbelief in superstitious explanations of mental illness. Statistically significant differences favored community-based treatment and biopsychosocial causation (factor 1) among professional groups (psychiatrists and nurses) as compared with family members and the general public (p < 0.001); while family members, unexpectedly, showed far weaker personal preferences for direct personal relationships with people with mental illness than all three other groups (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Both psychiatrists and nurses showed greater support for social integration and biopsychosocial understandings of mental illness than the lay public, most likely because of their training and experience, while family members showed the least positive attitudes towards direct personal relationships with people with mental illness. These findings suggest support for a more extensive, formal system of care that gives family members some distance from the problems of their relatives and support in their care.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Sun et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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