Research Paper
Medical Science
E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 7 | Issue : 1 | Jan 2021
PERCEPTION REGARDING MENTAL ILLNESS
1
2
Hina Singh | Luxmi Devi 1 2
M.Sc (N) Student, Psychiatric Nursing, Teerthanker Mahaveer College of Nursing, Moradabad, U.P., India. Assistant Professor, Psychiatric Nursing, Teerthanker Mahaveer College of Nursing, Moradabad, U.P., India.
ABSTRACT Mental health disorders are widely recognized as a major contributor to the global burden of disease worldwide. The community showed lack of knowledge concerning mental illness, inability to identify types and had negative views regarding mental illness. Grounded theory research design was used to assess the perception regarding mental illness. It clearly states that mental illness is still not well understood, often disregarded and considered as a taboo. 12 participants were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected by in-depth interview and open ended questionnaire. Findings of the study revealed that there are various factors which affect mental health, it consist of six major themes - Mental illness is different from other disease, Caused by accident and shock, Cured by seeking medical advice, Having friends puts a positive impact on mentally ill person, Mentally ill people should not get married and do job, Mentally ill person is burden and disturbs family atmosphere. The present study concluded that, mental illness are the behavioral or intellectual health disorder that distort a individual emotion, reasoning, enduring capability and periodic operation thus declining one's capacity for coping with ordinary demands of life. Various activities have been associated to mental illness such people exhibit unusual pattern of behavior such as they show excessive temper tantrum, hurt other people in the society, speaks loudly and irrelevantly, usually repeats one task several time, becomes violent which as a result develop burden over the family member and they felt difficult to manage them. KEYWORDS: Perception, Mental Illness, Rural Population. 1. INTRODUCTION: World Health Report 2001, states that the disorder related to mental health and behavior are not discriminating; so, it can influence each one from any country or society irrespective of their gender, age, income or social status with estimation of about 450 million globally where according to the Indian scenario it has been found 5.8%. It has been estimated that around 25% of every individual suffer through mental illness. It also revealed around 10% of adult population are currently having mental health disorder whereas almost 20% of the people who are visiting to primary health care center are also having one or the other problem associated with mental health disorder. The perceptions of mental health care are broad and accomplished where mental health care is still relatively new and not widely accepted. People were also having certain assumptions like mental health disorder are not diseases but are usually developed due to black magic, witchcraft, and obscenity. Some people belief that mental illnesses are not diseases but correspond to possession of evil spirit, witchcraft or curse. The component that influence the mental health status of a community include incomprehensiveness on mental health issues, segregation of psychiatry from the rest of medicine and associated stigma These component have a negative impact on community's mental health seeking behavior, such as delay in treatment seeking thus leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Due to stigma associated to mental illness it has been found difficult in looking for mental health services available.(James 2007). Mental health related problems also became as a global public health concern because usually the number of population live in rural areas were the majority of disorder were undiagnosed due to lack of information and pessimistic attitude towards mental health disorder.(Poreddi 2015). Hence having appropriate knowledge regarding mental health will relieve the significant distress and also help in improving the quality of life and will also help in reducing levels of mentally ill health and less stigma and discrimination. Therefore, it is important to explore the concept regarding mental illness.
Finding revealed that 50% belongs to the category of 18-42yr and 50% belong to the category of 43-60 year of age. 50% belongs to the category of male and 50% belongs to the category of female. Majority of the participants (83.3%) were Muslims. Majority of the participants (75%) were unmarried. 16.7% belongs to the category of primary education, 33.3% belongs to the category of secondary education, 33.3% belongs to the category of graduation, 16.7% belongs to the category of post graduation. Majority of the participants (75%) belongs to joint family. 8.3% belongs to the category of government, 41.7% belongs to the category of private, 8.3% belongs to the category of business, and 41.7% belongs to the category of other occupation. Table 1: Frequency and percentage distribution of participant based on their sample characteristics. N=12 S.No. 1
2.2 Research Design: Grounded Theory Research Design
2
3
4
5
2.4 Sample: Rural Population 2.4 Tool: Open Ended Questionnaire
3. RESULTS: 3.1 Section A: Description of sample characteristics
Percentage (%)
6 6
50.0 50.0
6 6
50.0 50.0
Hindu Muslim
2 10
16.7 83.3
Christian
0
0
Other Marital Status
0
0
Married Unmarried
9 3
75.0 25.0
Primary
2
16.7
Secondary
4
33.3
Graduate
4
33.3
Post- Graduate
2
16.7
Nuclear
3
25.0
Joint
9
75.0
Age in Year
Gender Male Female
2.3 Sampling Technique: Simple Random Sampling Technique
2.5 Data Collection: In-depth Interview 2.6 Data Analysis: Glaserian method of constant comparative method.
Frequency (f)
18-42 years 43-60 years
1.1 Objective: To explore the Perception regarding Mental Illness among Rural Population. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 2.1 Research Approach: Qualitative Research Approach
Sample Characteristics
6
Religion
Education
Type of Family
Copyright© 2021, IERJ. This open-access article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License which permits Share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and Adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) under the Attribution-NonCommercial terms.
International Education & Research Journal [IERJ]
53
Research Paper 7
E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 7 | Issue : 1 | Jan 2021 Ÿ
Occupation Daily Wager
0
0
Government Private
1 5
8.3 41.7
Business
1
8.3
Other
5
41.7
3.2 Section B: Perception regarding Mental Illness Table 2: Theme and subthemes formed after data analysis. S. No. Themes Subtheme 1 MENTAL ILLNESS IS DIF- No sense of wearing clothes and shows FERENT FROM OTHER abnormal activities. DISEASE. Dangerous and should be kept away.
3.5 Cured by Seeking Medical Advice: Admit in Mental Hospital Participants spoke that mentally ill people should be admitted in hospital or else to the de- addiction center in order to seek medical advice from the doctor as by taking medicine and treatment they can be cured. VERBATIM: Ÿ “Admit them in de- addiction center, consult with doctor, give them medicine, keep them in open environment for peace, give advice to them time to time.” (Participant 1) Understand the feelings of mentally ill person. Participants say that we should understand the feeling of the mentally ill person because it will help them to express their feelings in better way and they will not become violent and we can provide them treatment accordingly.
2
CAUSED BY ACCIDENT AND SHOCK.
Ÿ
3
CURED BY SEEKING Admit in Mental Hospital MEDICAL ADVICE. Understand the feelings of mentally ill person.
“We should deal them with love and care and admit them in mental hospital.” (Participant 3)
Ÿ
4
HAVING FRIENDS PUTS A POSITIVE IMPACT ON MENTALLY ILL PERSON. MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE SHOULD NOT GET MARRIED AND DO JOB.
“Deal them with love and care, meditation and medicine should be given to them.” (Participant 5)
3.4 Having Friends puts a Positive Impact on Mentally ILL Person: Participants conveyed that having friends will help them in various ways such as they will help them to express their feeling , emotions , thoughts easily with them, they can discussed the problem of their life, they can even guide and advised them so that they don't feel lonely
MENTALLY ILL PERSON IS BURDEN AND DISTURBS FAMILY ATMOSPHERE.
VERBATIM: Ÿ They should have friends so that they can help to overcome their feeling as they teach them” (Participant 3)
5
6
Ÿ
3.3 Mental Illness is Different from other Disease. The participants had various perception regarding mental illness and also about mentally ill people. They perceive mental illness is different from other disease as they feel that person becomes weak by their mind due to thinking something again and again which enables the person to do abnormal activities and the ability to think logically towards a specific situation get lost whereas person becomes dangerous. VERBATIM: Ÿ “This disease is different from other disease by thinking of something again & again it occurs suddenly due to excessive thinking and usually it takes lot of time to get cured.” (Participant 2)
VERBATIM: Ÿ “They laugh in different & unusual manner performs extravagant and strange act and yells loudly, they wear torn and dirty clothes and does not have any sense.” (Participant 1) “They have no sense of wearing of clothes they wear torn and dirty clothes and does not maintain personal hygiene.” (Participant 6)
Dangerous and should be kept away. Participants spoke that being the member of the society it is very difficult to live with mentally ill person as they are very dangerous for all the people of the society as they can harm, hit and even kill other people because they can become violent at any time and at any place. VERBATIM: Ÿ “We usually don't know what mentally ill people can do they can kill anyone so stay away from these patients as they can attack anyone.” (Participant 2) 3.4. Caused by Accident and Shock: Many of them say that the main cause of having mental illness is accident. But other than accident the reason due to which person can get mental illness were related to any disturbance or tension in the mind of the individual which they are not able to express, being isolated from the society, shock due to the death of loved one or something happen in their life which was unbearable to them may also lead to mental illness. VERBATIM: “Usually caused due to death of someone in home, shock, losing their child, accident, head injury.” (Participant 2)
“They should have friends so that they can guide and advised them.” (Participant 7)
3.5 Mentally ILL People Should Not Get Married and Do Job: Participants conveyed that mentally ill people should not get married because they are unable to take care of themselves. So it is not possible for them to take care of their spouse. They say that mental illness can't be cured by getting married it can be spread from them to their spouse VERBATIM: Ÿ “They should not get married otherwise it will spread to her wife” (Participant 1) Ÿ
No sense of wearing clothes and shows abnormal activities. Participants conveyed that the people who suffer from mental illness usually dress themselves in bizarre manner they don't have the sense what they are wearing and how they are wearing. By seeing their clothes only people can indentify that they are not mentally stable and suffer from mental problem.
Ÿ
“Extreme tension leads to mental illness, excessive usage of mobile, accident, head injury.” (Participant 6)
“They should not get married because they can even kill there wife” (Participant 4)
Participants conveyed that the person suffering from mental illness is not capable of doing job because these people are not in their senses and do not understand the things. So, they should not be allowed to work in society because if they do so it will be of no use and can even worsen the situation. VERBATIM: Ÿ “Job should not be given to them because they do not understand anything” (Participant 1) Ÿ
“Job should not be given to them because accident can occur” ” (Participant 3)
3.6 Mentally ILL Person is Burden and Disturbs Family Atmosphere: Participant conveyed that having a mentally ill person in a family is very difficult to manage at home as they are usually involved in one or the other case such as ;they fought with the people around, throw stones or sticks on them which create issue in society. So family have to take care of the legal issue, they destroy things in the home, hit family members. VERBATIM: Ÿ “Whole family gets disturb by taking care of them, family have to be at their back to take care always, responsibility of the family increased towards them and they become burden ” (Participant 1) 3.7 Situational Specific Theory: Perception regarding Mental Illness among Rural Population. The theory was developed on the finding of the qualitative study on perception regarding mental illness among rural population .The study was conducted applying grounded theory approach which influences to develop the situational specific theory which describes the perception regarding mental illness among rural population.
Ÿ
54
As a part of data collection the theory which was developed states that the caus-
International Education & Research Journal [IERJ]
Research Paper
E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 7 | Issue : 1 | Jan 2021
ative factor of developing mental illness are usually related to accidents, shock and excessive thinking which further are associated with different perception of the people in rural population.
viding them love and care can make their condition far better and they can be able to lead a normal life. REFERENCES:
4. DISCUSSION: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perception regarding mental illness among rural population. It include various themes and subtheme: Mental illness is different from other disease. It is different from other diseases as people's ability to think logically towards a specific situation gets lost and they become dangerous they usually exhibit unusual pattern of behavior as they don't have sense of wearing clothes they get dress in bizarre manner and by seeing them one can easily indentify that they are suffering from mental problem Caused by accident and shock. The causative factors of developing mental illness are usually related to accidents and shock. It has been found that accidents which cause head injury enables the individual to acquire mental problem also if the individual is having any tension which they kept on thinking, any shocking news which is unbearable for them, due to death of any loved one in the family may also lead to develop mental illness in the individual. Cured by seeking medical advice. Findings reveals that mental illness can be cured by seeking medical advice as by taking medication regularly and investigating at early stage and admitting them in the mental hospital can help them to recover faster also by understanding their feelings and providing them love and care can make their condition far better and they can be able to lead a normal life. Having friends puts a positive impact on mentally ill person. Friends puts a positive impact on mentally ill person as by having them it will enable the individual to express their feeling , thoughts, emotion easily. They always feels that there is someone with whom they can discussed their problems. Friends not only help them to express their feelings but also guide them and teach them. Mentally ill people should not get married and do job. It has been find that mentally ill person should not get married and do job because if they got married then surely there will be a problem faced by them as well as by their spouses as these people are not capable of understanding things and situation Mentally ill person is burden and disturbs family atmosphere. Findings also revealed that mentally ill person are the burden over the family as they are always dependent and need one person permanently to take care of them. Already family members are busy in their own life schedule therefore to manage these people become more difficult for family members. 5. CONCLUSION: Mental illness are the behavioral or intellectual health disorder that distort a individual emotion, reasoning, enduring capability and periodic operation thus declining one's capacity for coping with ordinary demands of life. It is interlinked with discomfort, disease, response to a particular event, or defined to civil relationship. Finding reveals that the causative factor of mental illness are due to accident, shock and genetics. Various activities have been associated to mental illness such people exhibit unusual pattern of behavior such as they show excessive temper tantrum, hurt other people in the society, speaks loudly and irrelevantly, usually repeats one task several time, becomes violent which as a result develop burden over the family member and they felt difficult to manage them.. They revealed that early recognition and seeking medical advice will help the individual to overcome from their situation such as understanding their feelings and pro-
International Education & Research Journal [IERJ]
I.
Al- Adawi, S., Dorvlo, A., Al-Ghafry, D., Al-Noobi, B., Al-salmi, A., & Burke, D. et al. (2003).Perception and Attitude towards mental illness in Oman. Indian Journal Of Social Psychiatry, 48(4), 305-317. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com
II.
Benedicto, M., Mndeme, E., Mwakagile, D., & Mwansisya, T. (2016). munity
III.
Knowledge, Attitude and Perception towards Mental Illness in Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania. AR Journal Of Public Health And Community Medicine, 1(3),10-18.Retrieved from https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ajphcm/v1-i3/2.pdf
IV.
Blignault, I., Bunde-Birouste, A., Ritchie, J., Silove, D., & Zwi, A. (2009). Community Perceptions of mental health needs in the Solomon Islands. International Journal Of Mental Health System, 3(6), 1-14. Retrieved from http://www.ijmhs.com
V.
Danto, D., & Walsh, R. (2017). Mental Health Perceptions and practices of a Cree community in NorthernOntario. International Journal Mental Health Addiction, 15, 725-737. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com
VI.
Das, S., & Ram Phookun, H. (2013). Knowledge, Attitude Perception and Belief of patient’s relative towards mental health disorder. Delhi Psychiatry Journal, 16(1), 98-109. Retrieved from http://medind.nic.in
VII.
Deribew, A., & Tamirat, Y. (2003). How are mental health problems perceived by a community in Agaro town ?. Ethiop Journal Health Dev., 19(2), 1-9. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org
VIII.
G, Aruna., Mittal, S., Muralidhara, Y., Acharya, C., Acharya, S., & Uppulari, C. (2016).
IX.
Perception, knowledge, and attitude toward mental disorders and psychiatry among medical undergraduates in Karnataka :A cross-sectional study. Indian Journal Of Psychiatry, 1(58). 70-76. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
X.
Ghanean, H. (2013). Studies on the perception of mental illness and epilepsy in Tehran,Iran. Department Of Clinical Sciences Umea University,28(2), 163-167 Retrieved from https://www.diva-portal.org
XI.
Gyeke, M., & Asumang, E. (2013). Stigmatization and Discrimination experiences of persons with mental illness: Insights from a qualitative study in southern ghana. Social Work And Society International Online Journal, 11(1), 128-133 Retrieved from https://www.socwork.net
XII.
Ham, L., Wright, P., Van, T., Doan, V., & Broerse, J. (2011). Perceptions of mental health and help-seeking behavior in an urban community in Vietnam: An Explorative study. Community Mental Jealth Journal, 47(5), 574-582. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
XIII.
Kapoor, B. (2010). Textbook of Psychiatric Nursing (4th ed., p. 9). New Delhi: Kumar Publishing House. 9.
XIV.
K, G. (2011). Knowledge and Attitude of Mental Illness among lic of
XV.
Southern India. National Journal Of Community Medicine, 2(1). 175-178. Retrieved from https://www.njcmindia.org
XVI.
Kinyua, B., & Njagi, E. (2013). Knowledge and Perceptions about mental illness among Kenyans immigrants living in Jyvaskyla Finland (U.G). JAMK University of Applied Sciences. 3-46. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/65469/Theis%20pdf.pdf?sequence
XVII.
Kishore, J., Gupta, A., Jiloha, R., & Bantman, P. (2011). Myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorders and health-seeking behavior in Delhi, India. I n d i a n J o u r n a l O f P s y c h i a t r y, 4 ( 5 3 ) , 3 2 4 - 3 2 9 . R e t r i e v e d f r o m http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org
XVIII.
Lama, S. (2013). Attitude and Perception of mental disorder among individual from Nepal. St. Catherine University. 1-57 Retrieved from https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1222&context=msw_papers
XIX.
Misael, B., Ebrahim, J., Awoke, T., Yohannis, Z., & Bedaso, A. (2016). Community
XX.
knowledge, attitudes and perception towards mental illness among residents of Gimbi Town, Western Ethiopia. PsychiatryJournal.1-8 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27840817
XXI.
Perre, N., Wilson, N., Merry, J., & Murphy, G. (2013). Perceptions of mental illness among student in Australia. Journal Of The Australian And New Zealand Student Services Association, 48, 1-15. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323112989
XXII.
Porredi, V., Biruda, R., Thimmaiah, R., & Bada Math, S. (2015). Mental health literacy among caregivers of persons with mental illness: A Descriptive Survey. Journal Of Neurosciences In Rural Practice, 6(3), 355-360. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4481790/
XXIII.
Sadik, S., Bradley, M., Hasoon, S., & Jenkins, R. (2019). Public Perception of mental health in Iraq. International Journal Of Mental Health System, 4. 4-26. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2964529/
XXIV.
Salve, H., Goswami, K., Sagar, R., Nongkynrih, B., & Sreenivas, V. (2013). Perception
XXV.
and Attitude towards Mental Illness in an urban community in South Delhi. Indian Journal Of Psychiatry, 2(35), 154-158. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255682340
XXVI.
Schoonover, J., Lipkin, S., Rose, A., Solanki, M., Shah, S., & Katz, C. (2014). Perceptions of traditional healing for mental illness in Rural Gujarat. Ann Glob
Com-
General Pub-
55
Research Paper
E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 7 | Issue : 1 | Jan 2021
Health, 80(2), 96-102. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24976546 XXVII. Scull, N., Khullar, N., Awadhi, N., & Erheim, R. (2014). A qualitative study of the Perception of mental health care in Kuwait. International Perspectives In Psychology : Research, Practice , Consultation, 3(4), 284-299. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275634837 XXVIII. Shah, A., Wheeler, L., Sessions, K., Kuule, Y., Agraba, E., & Merry, S. (2017). Community perceptions of mental illness in rural Uganda: An analysis of existing challenges facing the Bwindi Mental Health Programme. African Journal Of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 1-9. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645563/ XXIX.
Sreevani, R. (2013). Psychology for Nurses (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers.
XXX.
Tibebe, A., & Tesfay, K. (2015). Public Knowledge and Belief about Mental Disorder in
XXXI.
Developing Countries: A Review. Journal Of Depression And Anxiety. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287121224
XXXII. Venkatesh, B., Andrews, T., Mayya, S., Singh, M., & Pareskar, S. (2017). Perception of stigma toward mental illness in South India. Journal Of Family Medicine And Primary Care, 4(3), 449-453. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26288791
56
International Education & Research Journal [IERJ]