정신장애인 치료에 중요 역할 담당자의 정신질환에 대한 태도조사

Attitudes Toward Mental Illness of the Persons who Involved in Treating the Mentally III

Objectives : Attitudes of families of mentally ill, health personnels and community leaders to the mentally ill affect the development and utilization of the community mental health program and reintegration of the chronically ill patients into society. This study was designed to compare the attitudes toward the mentally ill patient of the persons who have important role in treating the mentally ill and to find the variables influencing the attitudes. Methods : We measured attitudes toward mental illness in psychotic patients’ families(N= 139), community leaders(N=180) and health personnels(N=324) including mental health personnels before the implementation of community mental health services in Yonchon county and Seodaemun district area. The instrument used to measure attitudes was Opinion about Mental Illness(O.M.I.) scale. Results ： 1) Health personnel showed lower Authoritarianism(Factor A) and higher Benevolence (Factor B) scores on the average than community leaders and psychotic patients’ families. 2) Current residence affect the attitudes in psychotic patients’ families, not in community leaders and health personnels. Families in urban area showed lower Authoritarianism(Factor A) and Social Restrictiveness(Factor D) and higher Benevolence(Factor B) scores than in the rural areas. 3) Many patient variables were correlated to the attitudes of families. Duration of illness, number of recurrence, number of admission, age of patients and family burden were positively correlated mainly to Social Restrictiveness(Factor D). 4) Sex and religion of respondents showed no or weak relationship with the factor scores. Conclusions : Education for community leaders and families is required to achieve successful community mental health services. Community support program should be developed for chronic, recurrent and burdensome psychiatric patients in the first place