A study to assess the knowledge and beliefs regarding mental illness among the family members of mentally ill patients.

Thesis Report.

ABSTRACT:

Background: According to WHO 19th April 1999 states that among the 10 major disabilities the 5 main reasons are mental illness. The World Health Organization (WHO 1999) estimates that 450 million people worldwide are affected by a mental illness or mental health problems; yet, fewer than 4 in 10 will receive any intervention or support.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess knowledge and beliefs regarding mental illness among the family members of mentally ill clients.

Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study was done to assess the knowledge and beliefs regarding mental illness among 105 family members of mentally ill clients visiting Mental Hospital OPD, Lagankhel. Systematic Random sampling technique was used . SPSS 16 version was applied to find the results. Chi-square test was used to find the association between selected demographic variables with knowledge and beliefs of the respondent s. Results: The knowledge on mental illness is high in the family members which was 89.5% and 10.5% had low knowledge. The beliefs on mental illness is also positive in the family members which was 90.5% and 9.5% had negative beliefs .Most of the people first had medical consultation. (57.1) as a part of their initial treatment rather than consulting traditional healer (42.9%).

Conclusion: Thus, it was concluded that majority of the respondents has high knowledge regarding mental illness as well as positive beliefs regarding mental illness. More than 50% had medical consultation initially. There was no association between selected demographic (age, sex and educational status) variables with knowledge, and beliefs regarding mental illness. There was also no association between beliefs and knowledge.

Keywords: Mental illness, knowledge, beliefs

Eng.