Clergy's Beliefs About Mental Illness and Their Perception of Its Treatability: Experience from a Church-Based Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT) Trial in Nigeria.

Abstract

Clergy participating in the Healthy Beginning Initiative (N=45), a program utilizing church workers to integrate packages of care into church activities, completed a 43-item self-administered questionnaire assessing their attitudes and beliefs about mental disorders and perception of their treatability. A majority believed that drug/alcohol use, stress and genetic inheritance could cause mental illness and that society needed to adopt more tolerant attitude toward people with mental disorders. Clergy with contact with people with mental disorders were more likely to perceive depression as treatable. In conclusion, participants had positive attitudes toward mental disorders with some believing that they are treatable.