Determining the Attitudes of a Rural Community in Penang, Malaysia towards Mental Illness and Community-Based Psychiatric Care

Abstract

Introduction: Historical attitudes toward mental illness have been one of stigmatisation. This has serious implications for patients as it disadvantages them in aspects of daily living and leads to delay in seeking and in defaulting treatment. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the attitudes of a rural community in Penang, Malaysia towards various aspects of mental illness and towards community-based mental health facilities. Materials and Methods: A Malay version of Community Attitudes toward Mental Illness-Swedish (CAMI-S) questionnaire was used as a tool to achieve the objective of this ethically conducted cross sectional study. The results were analysed descriptively using PASW Statistics 18. Results: Most respondents felt that mental illness was unlike other illness (78.1%) and most did not trust mentally ill patients in remission to become babysitters (92.7%). However, majority of the respondents disagreed in treating the mentally ill as outcasts (78.1%). Most respondents (85.4%) also agreed that mental health treatment should be provided through community-based facilities where possible. Conclusion: While most respondents displayed a mixed feeling of distrust and fear but they also exhibited tolerance towards preventing stigmatisation and accepting community-based care for the mentally ill.