Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Current Issue

By Issue

By Subject

Keyword Index

Author Index

Indexing Databases XML

About Journal

Aims and Scope

Editorial Board

Advisory Board

Editorial Staff

Publication Ethics

Indexing and Abstracting

News

People's Perception towards Mental Health Problems

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2022, Volume 21, Issue 3, Pages 311-317
10.52573/ipmj.2021.175794

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Positive people’s perception determines their interaction and provides support to persons with mental health problems in order to express their own emotional problems and seeking care while negative perception results in avoidance, discrimination, stigma, and even low access to health services.
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the perception towards people with mental health problems, among people who attend Primary Health Care centers (PHCCs) in Baghdad, and to study the association of the level of perception with certain personal attributes.
METHODOLOGY:
A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of Primary Health Care centers (PHCCs) in Baghdad. Five centers from each side of Baghdad City (Karkh and Rusafa).The study was conducted on 400Iraqi adults attended the selected centers, for a period of four months extended from 1stFebruary to the end of May 2019.
RESULT:
The results revealed that 56.8% of the respondents were with fair perception, 32% with good perception and only a small proportion of the respondents (11.3%) have poor perception towards mental health problems. The educational level of respondents and their occupational status were found to be significantly associated with perception of mental health problems.
CONCLUSION:
In the current study, a small proportion of the respondents have poor perception towards mental health problems, and regarding the association of perception with different demographic characteristics, the educational level and the occupational status were found to be significantly associated with perception toward mental health problems.
 
Keywords:

  1. WHO. Mental disorders. 9 April 2018 Available at: www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders
  2. Park K. Mental health. Chapter 17. In: Park’sTextbook of Preventive and Social Medicine. 23rd Edition. Bhanot, Jabalpur, 2015:831-39.
  3. WHO. Risks to Mental Health: An overview of vulnerabilities and risk factors. Background paper by WHO secretariat for the development of a comprehensive mental health action plan. 27 August2012.
  4. Corrigan PW & Watson AC. Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World Psychiatry, 2012;1:1.
  5. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O & Walters EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005; 62:617-27.
  6. Stier A& Hinshaw SP. Explicit and implicit stigma against individuals with mental illness. Australian Psychologist, 2007;42:106-17.
  7. Gureje O, Lasebikan VO, Ephraim-Oluwanuga O, Olley BO& Kola L. Community study of knowledge of and attitude to mental illness in Nigeria. British J of Psychiatry, 2005;186:                436-41.
  8. Abolfotouh MA, Almutairi AF, Almutairi Z, Salam M, Alhashem A,  Adlan AA & Modayfer O. Attitudes toward mental illness, mentally ill persons, and help-seeking among the Saudi public and sociodemographic correlates.PLoS ONE 14(9): e0222172.
  9. Salve H, Goswami K, Sagar R, Nongkynrih B&Sreenivas V. Perception and attitude towards mental illness in an urban community in South Delhi: A community based study. Indian J of Psychological Medicine, 2013;35:154-58.

10. Benti M, Ebrahim J, Awoke T, Yohannis Z &Bedaso A. Community Perception towards mental illness among residents of Gimbi Town, Western Ethiopia. Psychiatry J, 2016. Article ID 6740346, 8 pages.

11. Sadik S, Bradley M, Al-Hasoon S& Jenkins R. Public perception of mental health in Iraq. International J of Mental Health Systems, 2010;4.Article 26 doi: 10.1186/1752-4458-4-26.

12. Adewuya AO &Makanjuola RO. A lay beliefs regarding causes of mental illness in Nigeria: Pattern and correlates. Social Psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology .2008;43:336-41.

  • Article View: 46
  • PDF Download: 11