scholarly journals Community study of knowledge of and attitude to mental illness in Nigeria

2005 ◽  
Vol 186 (5) ◽  
pp. 436-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oye Gureje ◽  
Victor O. Lasebikan ◽  
Olusola Ephraim-Oluwanuga ◽  
Benjamin O. Olley ◽  
Lola Kola
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Poor Knowledge ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Sub Saharan

BackgroundThe improvement of community tolerance of people with mental illness is important for their integration. Little is known about the knowledge of and attitude to mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa.AimsTo determine the knowledge and attitudes of a representative community sample in Nigeria.MethodA multistage, clustered sample of household respondents was studied in three states in the Yoruba-speaking parts of Nigeria (representing 22% of the national population). A total of 2040 individuals participated (response rate 74.2%).ResultsPoor knowledge of causation was common. Negative views of mental illness were widespread, with as many as 96.5% (s.d.=0.5) believing that people with mental illness are dangerous because of their violent behaviour. Most would not tolerate even basic social contacts with a mentally ill person: 82.7% (s.e.=1.3) would be afraid to have a conversation with a mentally ill person and only 16.9% (s.e.=0.9) would consider marrying one. Socio-demographic predictors of both poor knowledge and intolerant attitude were generally very few.ConclusionsThere is widespread stigmatisation of mental illness in the Nigerian community. Negative attitudes to mental illness may be fuelled by notions of causation that suggest that affected people are in some way responsible for their illness, and by fear.

scholarly journals Mental health in Sierra Leone

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Harris ◽  
Tarik Endale ◽  
Unn Hege Lind ◽  
Stephen Sevalie ◽  
Abdulai Jawo Bah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
National Budget ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Provide Quality Care ◽  
Sub Saharan

Sierra Leone is a West African country with a population of just over 7 million. Many Sierra Leoneans lived through the psychologically distressing events of the civil war (1991–2002), the 2014 Ebola outbreak and frequent floods. Traditionally, mental health services have been delivered at the oldest mental health hospital in sub-Saharan Africa, with no services available anywhere else in the country. Mental illness remains highly stigmatised. Recent advances include revision of the Mental Health Policy and Strategic Plan and the strengthening of mental health governance and district services. Many challenges lie ahead, with the crucial next steps including securing a national budget line for mental health, reviewing mental health legislation, systematising training of mental health specialists and prioritising the procurement of psychotropic medications. National and international commitment must be made to reduce the treatment gap and provide quality care for people with mental illness in Sierra Leone.

scholarly journals Metabolic syndrome among people with mental illness in sub Saharan Africa: Female gender as a factor. A Systematic review and meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 102351
Author(s):  
Robel Hussen Kabthymer ◽  
Solomon Nega Techane ◽  
Solomon Hailemariam ◽  
Yibeltal Alemu Bekele ◽  
Birhanie Mekuriaw
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Sub Saharan

Muslim mass shooters are perceived as less mentally ill and more motivated by religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Gregory Mercier ◽  
Azim Shariff ◽  
Adam Norris
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
News Article ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Extremist Groups

Objective: We test whether prejudice can influence lay attributions of mental illness to perpetrators of violence. Specifically, we examine whether people with negative attitudes towards Muslims perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters. Method: Study 1 compares attributions of mental illness to Muslim and non-Muslim perpetrators of recent mass shootings. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally test whether a mass shooter described in a news article is seen as less mentally ill when described as being a Muslim, compared to when described as a Christian (Study 2) and to when religion is not mentioned (Study 3). Study 4 tests whether a Muslim shooter is seen as less mentally ill than a Christian shooter, even when both shooters have symptoms of mental illness. Results: In all studies, Muslim shooters were seen as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters, but only by those with negative views towards Muslims. Conclusion: Those with anti-Muslim prejudices perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill, likely to maintain culpability and fit narratives about terrorism. This may reinforce anti-Muslim attitudes by leading those with anti-Muslim prejudice to overestimate the amount of violence inspired by groups like ISIS relative to extremist groups from other ideologies.

scholarly journals Management aspects of care for the homeless mentally ill

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Timms
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
High Unemployment ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Homeless Mentally Ill ◽  
The Continuum

People with mental illness have always been marginalised and economically disadvantaged. Warner (1987) has shown that this is particularly true in times of high unemployment. Poor inner-city areas have excessive rates of severe mental illness, usually without the health, housing and social service provisions necessary to deal with them (Faris & Dunham, 1959). The majority of those who suffer major mental illness live in impoverished circumstances somewhere along the continuum of poverty. Homelessness, however defined, is the extreme and most marginalised end of this continuum, and it is here that we find disproportionate numbers of the mentally ill.

scholarly journals Public attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland, 1994–2003

2009 ◽  
Vol 194 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha Mehta ◽  
Aliya Kassam ◽  
Morven Leese ◽  
Georgia Butler ◽  
Graham Thornicroft
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Health Attitudes ◽  
Significant Deterioration ◽  
Community Attitudes ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Quota Sampling

BackgroundUnderstanding trends in public attitudes towards people with mental illness informs the assessment of ongoing severity of stigma and evaluation of anti-stigma campaigns.AimsTo analyse trends in public attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland using Department of Health Attitudes to Mental Illness Surveys, 1994–2003.MethodWe analysed trends in attitudes for 2000 respondents in each survey year (6000 respondents in 1996 and 1997) using quota sampling methods and the adapted Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill scale.ResultsComparing 2000 and 2003, there was significant deterioration for 17/25 items in England and for 4/25 items in Scotland. Neither country showed significant improvements in items between 2000 and 2003.ConclusionsPublic attitudes towards people with mental illness in England and Scotland became less positive during 1994–2003, especially in 2000–2003, and to a greater extent in England. The results are consistent with early positive effects for the ‘see me’ anti-stigma campaign in Scotland.

scholarly journals Mood disorders and violence: a new focus

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Oakley ◽  
Fiona Hynes ◽  
Tom Clark
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Psychiatric Disorder ◽  
Mood Disorders ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
People With Mental Illness

SummaryViolent behaviour in people with a psychiatric disorder causes great public concern and leads to stigma for people with mental illness. There is good evidence for a correlation between schizophrenia and increased rates of violence but any association between mood disorders and violence has been comparatively overlooked. It appears that there may be more evidence relating mood disorders and violence than many clinicians realise. This article highlights the difficulties in assessing this, summarises what is known and discusses what this means for clinical practice.

scholarly journals Economic burden of caregiving for persons with severe mental illness in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. e0199830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Addo ◽  
Samuel Agyei Agyemang ◽  
Yesim Tozan ◽  
Justice Nonvignon
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Economic Burden ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

Early interventions to prevent stigmatization and its consequences

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Norman Sartorius
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
Early Interventions ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
People With Mental Illness

People with mental illness are usually characterized by the unpredictability of their behaviour: this feature is central to the concept of ‘mentally ill’ and has found its expression in words such as ‘alien’ (describing a person whose behaviour is different and unpredictable) or ‘alienist’ (as a description of a psychiatrist who deals with mentally ill people). Unpredictability is the very basis of stigma: individuals with mental illness are separated from other people by their key characteristic of being different, alien, unpredictable—and therefore funny, dangerous, not belonging. The consequence of this fact for the fight against stigmatization is that a key element of work must be the education of parents, teachers, and others who influence the development of children in order that these children become adults who accept the notion that people with mental illness are similar to themselves (and to other people who do not have the illness) and that it is the illness that makes them different. Interventions against stigmatization must therefore begin not with the onset of illness or with the first encounter with a mentally ill person but with the concept formation—hence, early in life. Parents and teachers are, of course, not the only ones who influence children and the formation of concepts; media and other sources of information must participate in these efforts. The chapter also describes some of the measures that have been shown, in the course of several major studies in recent years, to be effective in reducing stigma.

Mental illness in some Sub Saharan African communities: the perspective of Bioethics and transcultural nursing

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-502
Author(s):  
Alessia Maccaro ◽  
Davide Piaggio ◽  
Concetta Anna Dodaro ◽  
Leandro Pecchia
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Transcultural Nursing ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Traditional Treatment ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
Sub Saharan

In this paper, transcultural nursing is reviewed in light of bioethical issues arising from the interpretation of mental illness in some Western Sub-Saharan African communities. Four field studies were carried out by the authors of this paper in Sub-Saharan Africa (from 2016 to 2019), during which the traditional “treatment” of enchaining people considered “crazy” by local cultures was explored. These inhuman practices raise the attention of bioethics, which investigate ways to overcome this traditional practice not violating the cultural identity of the peoples who practice it. The model of Gregoire Ahongbonon and of his Association, “Saint Camille de Lellis”, is reported as an example of negotiation between the respect for traditions and the guarantee of human rights. The care practice in force in the Saint Camille is related to transcultural nursing as an adequate form of treatment and strategy for restoring patients’ dignity and rights.

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