Attitude of the Adults towards Mentally Ill

Mental illness produces a disharmony in the person's ability to meet the human needs comfortably and effectively. Even if mental illness is a medical illness its discrimination by people had led to the formation of wide spread stigmatising attitudes towards mentally ill among public.

To assess the attitude of adults towards mentally ill and to determine the association of attitude with the socio-demographic characteristics of adults.

A descriptive survey approach was used for the study. A sample of 200 adults was selected by using convenient sampling. Data was collected by Community Attitude towards Mentally Ill (CAMI) Scale.

The findings of the study showed that the mean attitude score of the adults towards mentally ill patients was high i.e. 152.62 (SD=15.67). The mean score was highest in the domain of benevolence whereas it was least in the domain of authoritarianism. There was a significant association of the attitude with place of residence (p< 0.05) of adults.

The adults showed stigmatizing attitudes towards mentally which points out the need of implementing appropriate interventions in the community.