Attitudes to Mental Illness - 2011 survey report:part 2

Understanding and tolerance of mental illness

Introduction

This section explores understanding and tolerance of mental illness. These statements have all been included in each survey since 1994.

Analysis in this section focuses on the understanding/tolerance dimension of each statement.

For some statements this is the percentage agreeing, for others it is the percentage disagreeing. This is indicated for each statement in the list below.

The statements included are:

1.  ‘We have a responsibility to provide the best possible care for people with mental illness’ (% agreeing)
2.  ‘Virtually anyone can become mentally ill’ (% agreeing)
3.  ‘Increased spending on mental health services is a waste of money’ (% disagreeing)
4.  ‘People with mental illness don't deserve our sympathy’ (% disagreeing)
5.  ‘We need to adopt a far more tolerant attitude toward people with mental illness in our society’ (%agreeing) ‘People with mental illness have for too long been the subject of ridicule’ (% agreeing) ‘As far as possible, mental health services should be provided through community based facilities’ (% agreeing) 

Trends over time

Levels of understanding and tolerance of mental illness were generally high.

The percentage of respondents with understanding attitudes on these statements ranged in 2011 from 74% for ‘As far as possible, mental health services should be provided through community-based facilities’ to 91% for ‘We have a responsibility to provide the best possible care’ and ‘Virtually anyone can become mentally ill’ (Figure 4).

 Since 1994, the percentage of respondents voicing more tolerant opinions on several of these statements has decreased.

For example, the percentage disagreeing that ‘Increased spending on mental health services is a waste of money’ also fell, from 89% in 1994 to 82% in 2011. 

Agreement that ‘We need to adopt a more tolerant attitude towards people with mental illness’ fell from 92% in 1994 to 86% in 2011.
There has been a significant change in attitudes between 2010 and 2011 in two statements in this section – the percentage disagreeing with ‘Increased spending on mental health services is a waste of money’ fell from 87% in 2010 to 82% in 2011 (reversing a similar increase between 2009 and 2010), and the percentage agreeing that ‘As far as possible, mental health services should be provided through community-based facilities’ fell from 79% in 2010 to 74% in 2011

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