Conceptions of Mental Illness: Attitudes of Mental Health Professionals and the General Public

Abstract

Objectives The authors compared attitudes of the U.S. general public and of mental health professionals about the competence and perceived dangerousness of people with mental health problems and the desire for social distance from them. Factors related to negative attitudes and the desire for social distance also were examined. Methods Vignettes describing individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for major depression and schizophrenia were included in the 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) and a 2009 study of mental health professionals, and responses were descriptively compared (GSS, N=397 responses to depression vignette, N=373 responses to schizophrenia vignette; 731 mental health professionals responded to both vignettes). Regression analyses examined whether demographic and provider characteristics were associated with perceptions of less competence and perceived dangerousness of the vignette character and with respondents’ desire for social distance. Results Compared with the American public, mental health professionals had significantly more positive attitudes toward people with mental health problems. However, some providers’ conceptions about the dangerousness of people with schizophrenia and provider desire for social distance from clients in work and personal situations were concerning. Younger age, self-identifying as non-Hispanic white, being female, having at least a four-year college degree, being familiar with mental illness, and certain job titles and more years of experience in the mental health field were predictive of more positive conceptions. Conclusions Although mental health professionals held more positive attitudes than the general public about people with mental health problems, strong stereotypes persisted in both groups, especially concerning schizophrenia. This study identified several demographic and provider characteristics that can inform intervention strategies in both groups.

Stigma of mental illness and multicultural counseling self-efficacy : investigating the implications of the multicultural training environment, mental health literacy, and empathy.

“…Their results supported earlier findings that knowledge of mental illnesses is not closely related to stigmatizing attitudes (Crisp, Gelder, Rix, Meltzer, & Rowlands, 2000). Similarly, Stuber et al (2014) reported that, although a sample of mental health professionals generally held more positive attitudes toward individual with mental illnesses than did the sample of individuals from the general public in their study, the mental health professionals were vulnerable to endorsement of negative social messages about mental illnesses.…”

“…Stuber et al (2014) found, among a sample of 731 mental health service providers from 25 community mental health agencies, that having personal experience with mental illness, being a program manager (as opposed to front-line staff), and having more years of experience were predictors of more positive attitudes toward individuals with mental illnesses. This finding supports the suggestion that mental health service providers, depending on their job title, may spend a disproportionate amount of time in the company of individuals with mental illnesses when they are most unwell and when their engagement represents a hierarchical, rather than equal status, relationship (Bell et al, 2006 …”

“…Although there were no significant differences in mental illness stigma found in the current study associated with demographic differences, the study's findings indicated significant differences in multicultural counseling self-efficacy levels based on race, whether participants were studying at the master's or the doctoral level, and participants' program affiliation. This may be an indication that multicultural counseling self-efficacy is responsive to programmatic elements and to trainees' counseling knowledge base, differentiating it from mental illness stigma, which has been found to be not closely related to an individual's knowledge of mental illness or level of mental health literacy (Schulze, 2007;Stuber et al, 2014).…”

“…Additional recent literature suggests that such awareness will become expected of a wide range of mental healthcare providers, including non-medical mental health care providers, such as professional counselors (Holley et al, 2016;Kennedy et al, 2014;Nemec et al, 2015;Stuber, Rocha, Christian, & Link, 2014).…”

“…Despite presumed high levels of knowledge of mental health and illness, mental health providers are vulnerable to stigmatizing messages and to the endorsement of those messages (Stuber et al, 2014). This has implications for those who develop counselor preparation program curricula and who may expect that the increased mental health literacy that accompanies progress through a counseling preparation program will also, by default, address issues of mental illness stigma.…”