Attitudes towards mental illness among tribal and non-tribal

Page: 459-463

Sarathi Hembram (Psychiatric Social Worker, Mental Health Institute, Center of Excellence
SCBMCH, Cuttack, Odisha) Manisha Kiran (Department of Psychiatric Social Work, Ranchi Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Allied Sciences, (RINPAS) Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

Negative stereotypes and stigmatizing attitudes against mentally ill persons have powerful historical roots in many cultures. The common perception of these persons, who are unable to defend their rights, is that they are dangerous, violent and unpredictable (Arboreda-Florez & Sartorius, 2008). The present study aimed to find out attitudes towards mental illness among tribal and non-tribal population: a comparative study paper presents a preliminary investigation regarding the public perceptions and attitudes about mental illness using an adapted version of the Opinions about Mental Illness Scale (Cohen & Struening, 1962). The participants were 200 (100 tribal participants with having mental ill patient & 100 non tribal participants with having mental ill patient) and the following five attitudinal dimensions were investigated: Authoritarianism (the opinion that people with a mental illness cannot be held accountable for their acts & they should be controlled by society), benevolence (an attitude that could be placed between tolerance & pity/compassion), mental hygiene ideology (the opinion that mental illness is similar to other illnesses & it should be treated adequately by specialists), social restrictiveness (the opinion that mentally ill persons should be restricted in some social domains), and interpersonal a etiology (the belief that the real cause of a mental illness are the problematic interpersonal relations). Majority of the participants were from rural, of whom 166 (83%) were male and 34 (17%) were female with regards to OMI scale the item, viz ., ‘the law should a women to divorce her husband as soon as he has been confined in mental hospital with severe mental illness’ both the groups tribal with patient 52% and 56% non tribal with patient were neutral (significant at 0.024, p<0.05). Overall no significant level of difference revealed among tribal with patient and non tribal with patient with regards to attitude towards mental illness. Knowledge of mental illness among the general public was quite poor and suggests the need for strong emphasis on public education to increase mental health literacy among general public to increase awareness and positive attitude of people towards mental illness.