Social rejection of the mentally ill: A replication study of public attitude

Abstract

A replication survey of public attitudes toward the mentally ill was completed after a decade had elapsed which employed similar measures across the same urban area. Prior research evidence was empirically corroborated which indicated that attitude toward the mentally ill is not a uni-dimensional phenomenon, but is tied to differing social contexts. It does appear that a distinction can be made between attitudes in regard to social relations (personal contact) and social responsibility (impersonal contact). It was found that rejection of the mentally ill in situations of social relations was linked to prior personal experience with mental illness, perceived dangerousness of the mentally ill, and age of the survey respondent. Rejection of the mentally ill in circumstances involving social responsibility contracts (employment, housing, community affairs) was found to be largely tied to education of respondent. No significant differences were found in levels of public rejection of the mentally ill over the comparison ten year period.

Interpersonal contact and the stigma of mental illness: A review of the literature

“…Another study found that previous contact was associated with participants endorsing less dangerous views of a hypothetical male with a mental illness as presented in a case vignette . Trute et al (1989) also found that participants who reported previous contact were less likely to perceive individuals with a mental illness as dangerous. Link & Cullen (1986) examined contact by separating previous self-reported contact into voluntary (i.e., person works or volunteers with persons with a mental illness) and involuntary (i.e., a relative who was hospitalized, knowing someone who works in mental health) dimensions.…”

“…They found that people in the low-contact group were more rejecting (in that they required greater social distance) of an individual described in a vignette than those in the high contact group. Similarly, Italian residents who reported having previous contact endorsed more positive affective responses to individuals with SMI, chose less restrictive residential settings as preferable for persons with Less social distance; greater accepting attitudes Less social distance Less dangerous; less social distance Ingamells et al, 1996 Less social distance Link & Cullen, 1986 Less dangerous Penn et al, 1999 Less dangerous Read & Harre, 2001 Less social distance Trute et al, 1989 Less dangerous Vezzoli et al, 2001 Greater positive affect; less social restriction and social distance…”

Stigmatisation. Leçons tirées des programmes visant sa diminution

“…Malgré des niveaux relativement élevés de distanciation sociale à plusieurs de ces items, les réponses étaient largement favorables à un traitement communautaire. Une série d'études similaires reprises à Winnipeg à dix ans d'intervalle, en 1978 et en 1989, ne démontrait pas de changement dans les attitudes (Trute et al, 1989).…”

“…Les réactions communautaires négatives limitent non seulement les capacités des patients de participer à la vie de la communauté, mais aussi l'implantation et la disponibilité des programmes communautaires (Crocetti et al, 1971 ;Segal et al, 1980 ;Rabkin et al, 1984). L'acceptation publique des traitements dans la communauté et le rejet social de ces malades tiennent souvent aux perceptions de dangerosité et d'imprévisibilité (Trute et al, 1989 ;Stuart, 2003). Par exemple, la fermeture de lits d'hôpitaux et les plans de relocalisation en Grande-Bretagne ont été retardés à la lumière d'événe-ments largement publicisés (Wolff, 1997).…”

Knowledge about and attitudes toward mental disorders among Nagas in North East India

“…Some recent studies, however, have demonstrated considerable changes in public attitudes toward mental disorders [6,8] and this improvement in attitudes have been attributed to public education programs regarding mental health literacy. Attitudes towards mental illness and psychotherapy are reported to be related with help seeking behavior [9] and formal education is also reported to have positive relationship with opinions of psychological disorders and treatment [ 4,10,11,12,13].…”