Background: Stigma related to mental illness is a reality among health care providers. This study is an attempt to understand the attitudes of doctors from different specialties toward mental illness and the stigma related to it. Methods: We used a concurrent nested mixed-methods approach to understand and identify the various factors of mental-illness-related stigma in medical practitioners. Between November 2018 and March 2019, 100 medical practitioners from South India were administered a self-reporting OMS-HC (Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers), followed by in-depth interviews among 25 of the 100 participants selected using purposive sampling. Quantitative surveys were analyzed using SPSSv23. In-depth interviews were transcribed as extended notes, translated, and initially explored using focused coding and the constant comparative method. Results: Though findings from quantitative analysis show low to moderate stigma (Mean = 53.52, SD = 7.61), the qualitative study revealed unintended and covert negative attitude toward mental illness. Conclusion: As stigma occurs at various levels—structural, institutional, interpersonal, and personal—anti-stigma measures also need to be systematically designed. Qualitative studies give more insight regarding the nature of stigma in medical practitioners toward mental illness

Introduction:The employment status of mentally ill patients is a reflection of their productivity, control of illness besides providing therapeutic benefits and integration into mainstream society. Owing to the associated stigma, self-reporting of mental illness (SRMI) often is rare. Census exercise of India in 2011 provides an insight of SRMI and employment status of such people. This study was undertaken to consider the role of gender, age group, and place on the employment status of SRMI.Methodology:Frequency of SRMI, age group, gender, and employment status was gathered from Indian 2011 census sources. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were employed. P ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant.Results:Majority (68.6%) of the SRMI people resides in rural areas, in the economically productive age group of 15–59 years (75.88%) and often males (57.51%). Of the SRMI as reported in the data, 78.62% were not employed while 2.4% of them were currently employed. The employability frequency distributions of SMRIs were statistically different in terms of area, age group, and gender with significance.Discussion:Although the mental illness data of 2011 census was rejected by mental health professionals citing discrepancy and underestimating of the prevalence of mental illness, it provides a robust estimate of the employability, self-reporting tendency of mental illness. The association of the factors provides a unique insight into SRMIs in India.Conclusion:Understanding the interplay of factors may yield robust estimates and clues for policy framers to formulate employment-related policies for employment opportunities for mentally ill patients.

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