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Attitudes to mental illness
Grouping the statements
The 27 attitude statements are grouped into four categories for analysis purposes:
1. Fear and exclusion of people with mental illness
2. Understanding and tolerance of mental illness
3. Integrating people with mental illness into the community
4. Causes of mental illness and the need for special services.
Fear and exclusion of people with mental illness
Introduction
This section explores fear and exclusion of people with mental illness. These statements have all been included in each wave of the survey since 1994.
The statements covered in this section are:
The statements covered in this section are:
• ‘Locating mental health facilities in a residential area downgrades the neighbourhood’
• ‘It is frightening to think of people with mental problems living in residential
neighbourhoods’
• ‘I would not want to live next door to someone who has been mentally ill’
• ‘A woman would be foolish to marry a man who has suffered from mental illness, even
though he seems fully recovered’
• ‘Anyone with a history of mental problems should be excluded from taking public office’
• ‘People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility’
• ‘People with mental illness are a burden on society’
• ‘As soon as a person shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalized’
The statements in this section all portray less favourable or ‘negative’ attitudes towards
people with mental illness. Analysis in this section focuses on the percentage of respondents
agreeing with each of these statements (that is, displaying a negative attitude).
Trends over time
Figure 1 shows the levels of agreement with these statements from 1994 to 2011.
Overall, the levels of agreement with these negative statements about people with mental
illness were low, ranging in 2011 from 6% to 21%.
The highest levels of agreement in 2011 were with the statements ‘Anyone with a history of mental illness should be excluded from taking public office’ (21%) and ‘As soon as a person shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalized’ (21%).
The percentage of people saying that locating mental health facilities in a residential area downgrades the neighbourhood stood at 17% in 2011. (Figure1).
Data source:
Table 1Levels of agreement with several of these statements have fallen since 1994. Acceptance of people with mental illness taking public office and being give responsibility has grown – the percentage agreeing that ‘Anyone with a history of mental problems should be excluded from taking public office’ decreased from 29% in 1994 to 21% in 2011, while the percentage agreeing that ‘People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility’ decreased from 17% to 13% over the same period. There were no significant changes in levels of agreement with these statements between 2010 and 2011.
Differences by age and sex
Looking at the three age groups 16-34, 35-54 and 55+, there were significant differences by age group in agreement with several of these statements in 2011 (Figure 2). Statements from this section where there were no significant differences by age group are not shown on the chart.
In general the oldest group (age 55+) had the most negative attitudes towards people with mental illness, being significantly more likely than younger groups to agree that a woman would be foolish to marry a man who has suffered from mental illness.
Those aged 55+ and 35-54 were more likely than the youngest group to agree that anyone with a history of mental illness should be excluded from public office.
Those aged 16-34 were more likely than the older groups to agree that as soon as a person
shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalised.
Statements in this section where there was a significant difference in 2011 between men andwomen in the percentage agreeing are shown in Figure 3.
Where there was a difference between men and women, women were less negative towardspeople with mental illness.
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