Abstract
BackgroundThere is evidence of negative attitudes among health professionals towards people with mental illness but there is also a knowledge gap on what training must be given to these health professionals during their education. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes of students of health sciences: nursing, medical, occupational therapy, and psychology.MethodsA comparative and cross-sectional study in which 927 final-year students from health sciences university programmes were evaluated using the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes (both MICA-2 and MICA-4) scale. The sample was taken in six universities from Chile and Spain.ResultsWe found consistent results indicating that stigma varies across university programmes. Medical and nursing students showed more negative attitudes than psychology and occupational therapy students in several stigma-related themes: recovery, dangerousness, uncomfortability, disclosure, and discriminatory behaviour.ConclusionsOur study presents a relevant description of the attitudes of each university programme for education against stigma in the formative years. Results show that the biomedical understanding of mental disorders can have negative effects on attitudes, and that education based on the psychosocial model allows a more holistic view of the person over the diagnosis.
Highlights
There is evidence of negative attitudes among health professionals towards people with mental illness but there is a knowledge gap on what training must be given to these health professionals during their education
An expression of stigma in future psychiatrists consists of negative stereotypes about the personality and capacities of people suffering from mental disorders, the feeling that the recovery expectation of severe mental illness patients is non-existent, as well as a perception that people with schizophrenia are unpredictable and dangerous to the public [10]
Despite the attitudes of occupational therapy students not having been studied in depth, we present some updates of studies in Latin America [15, 16] that have affirmed that occupational therapists still have a stigmatising attitude towards individuals with a mental health diagnosis
Summary
There is evidence of negative attitudes among health professionals towards people with mental illness but there is a knowledge gap on what training must be given to these health professionals during their education. The purpose of this study is to compare the attitudes of students of health sciences: nursing, medical, occupational therapy, and psychology. Stigma towards people with Severe Mental Disorders (SMD) is a cross-cutting issue among different groups of healthcare professionals at both primary and secondary levels, nurses [1], doctors [2], occupational therapists, and psychologists [3]. Evidence suggests that stigma must be addressed in the first years of training in Nursing professionals have often reported their insecurity with regards to treating mental illness. Masedo et al BMC Medical Education (2021) 21:324 et al [7] reported that intensive-care nurses felt that they were unprepared to care for patients with mental health disorders; in this sense they reported a need for further training and education. Available evidence demonstrates that medical students typically hold negative attitudes towards psychiatric or mental health disorders [8]. An expression of stigma in future psychiatrists consists of negative stereotypes about the personality and capacities of people suffering from mental disorders, the feeling that the recovery expectation of severe mental illness patients is non-existent, as well as a perception that people with schizophrenia are unpredictable and dangerous to the public [10]
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