Recherche en médecine familiale et en sciences médicales
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Assessmentof Adult Attitude towards Mental Illness among Attendees of Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic at Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia Governorate

Atta MS, Abdo HA, Nour-Eldein H, Tosson EE

Background: Despite the improvement in healthcare services provided for mentally-ill individuals, yet they often choose not to seek such care or stop taking their medicines due to the surrounding stigma. Many tools in the last years have been developed to assess stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental illness.

Objectives: To assess public attitude towards mental disorders in Egypt and its association with their sociodemographic characteristics. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the Family Medicine outpatient clinic of Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia, Egypt. Two hundred and fifteen participants were interviewed and requested to fill in three questionnaires; demographic questionnaire, socioeconomic status questionnaire, and Attitude to Mental Illness questionnaire. Results: Participants had negative attitudes concerning the fear and exclusion of people with mental illness (19.03 ± 3.86 points). However, they had more positive attitude towards causes of mental illness and the need for special services (11.14 ± 2.02 points), integrating people with mental illness into the community (25.02 ± 4.09 points), understanding and tolerance of mental illness (27.38 ± 3.41 points).

Conclusion: Public attitude towards mental illness can be variable. Although the attitudes regarding their fear and exclusion of patients with mental illness were negative; however, we found a huge understanding and tolerance towards mental illness and supported integrating patients with mental illness into the community. Recommendation: Anti-stigma programs are needed to boost people's acceptance of mental illness and strategies to increase social contact of the public with mentally-ill should be considered.