Changes in Attitudes toward Mental Illness in Healthcare Professionals and Students

Abstract

Mental-illness-related stigma not only exists in the public but also in healthcare systems. Healthcare providers (HCPs) who have stigmatizing attitudes or behaviors might be thought of as a key barrier to mental health service use, and influence the quality of healthcare. Although cumulative projects have been conducted to reduce stigma related to mental illness among HCPs around the world, little is known about whether the attitudes of HCPs toward mental illness have changed over time. Research on this topic is mixed with respect to whether attitudes of HCPs toward mental illness have become more or less positive. The aim of the current study was to help clarify this issue using a cross-temporal meta-analysis of scores on the Social Distance Scale (SDS), Opinions about Mental Illness (OMI), and Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness (CAMI) measures among health care professionals and students (N = 15,653) from 1966 to 2016. Our results indicated that both social distance (β = −0.32, p < 0.001) and attitudes (β = 0.43, p = 0.007) of HCPs toward mental illness have become increasingly positive over time. These findings provide empirical evidence to support that the anti-stigma programs and courses have positive effects on HCPs and can inform future anti-stigma programs focusing on improving the attitudes of HCPs toward mental illness, thereby improving the quality of healthcare provided.

Efficacy of an Intervention to Reduce Stigma Beliefs and Attitudes among Primary Care and Mental Health Professionals: Two Cluster Randomised-Controlled Trials

“…This study aimed to evaluate two awareness-raising interventions respectively tailored to reduce stigma beliefs and attitudes towards persons with a mental health diagnosis among primary care and mental health professionals. The results show intervention size effects close to those registered in other territories where similar activities have taken place [1,14,[19][20][21][22][23]. Despite these generally favourable results, as seen in the previous literature [21] a rebound effect is seen in further follow-up assessments.…”

“…Most people diagnosed with mental disorders have experienced some form of discrimination in healthcare settings, with figures reaching 90% in large cohorts [13]. Despite decreases in these rates attributable to the multitude of anti-stigma campaigns implemented and, in general, the public debate about it around the world [14], levels of discrimination still prevent affected people from seeking professional help and adequate treatment when they reach health services [5,10,15,16]. However, health professionals are also key to change, since the way in which they conceptualize mental disorders ends up influencing the rest of the population [17].…”

“…According to recent reviews and meta-analyses [1,14,[19][20][21][22][23], studies examining mental health stigma reduction interventions carried out with healthcare professionals have generally found positive results regarding interventions including social contact with people diagnosed of a mental illness and problem-based learning. However, positive results do not usually last, since the differences with control groups disappear after relatively short periods of time [21].…”

Controlled Study of the Impact of a Virtual Program to Reduce Stigma Among University Students Toward People With Mental Disorders

“…Experiencing stigma in medical settings is a stressor that contributes, among others, to reducing patients' quality of life and to exacerbating inequities in health outcomes and access to healthcare ( 11 – 13 ). Furthermore, stigma is considered a major obstacle against processes of mental health recovery ( 14 – 16 ) and is a main determinant of the quality of care delivered by health professionals and medical students ( 17 , 18 ).…”

A New Method of Teaching about Psychopathology and the Mental Status Examination

“…This universal sociocultural phenomenon has a major impact on medical training by reducing the number of students who choose psychiatry as a specialty. The global increase in the prevalence of mental disorders has led to serious public health problems in high-income and middle-income countries due to the lack of qualified human resources to provide mental health care (Evans-Lacko et al, 2012;Simon & Verdoux, 2018;Lien et al, 2019;Pinto et al, 2020;Dalky et al, 2020). This issue can be addressed during medical training by drawing the interest and attention of medical students to the mental status examination and by giving it the same importance as that of physical examination, especially in emergency and neurological departments.…”