Mental health literacy survey among Sri Lankan carers of patients with schizophrenia and depression

Introduction: Mental health literacy has been defined as knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention.

Aim: Preliminary investigation on mental health literacy among Sri Lankan carers of patients with Schizophrenia and Depression.

Method: Cross sectional descriptive study investigated a convenience sample of 119 carers of a person with Depression or Schizophrenia attending a community clinic using vignettes adapted from an existing mental health literacy survey.

Results: The Schizophrenia vignette was reported as a crisis by 28% and 35.6% reported the Depression vignette as a crisis. Schizophrenia and Depression were identified as mental illnesses by 72% and 64% respectively. Persons with Schizophrenia and Depression were reported to be more violent than a member of the community by 61% and 60%. Psychiatrist's help was preferred as the therapeutic intervention in Schizophrenia (86.7%) and Depression (91.5%), whereas only 21.7% preferred traditional healers. Carers of persons with Schizophrenia (72%) and Depression (61%) held the attitude that the problem is a sign of personal weakness. Sixteen percent of carers wanted to avoid people with similar problems.

Discussion: Carers had stigmatising attitudes such as persons with mental illness were violent and the illness was a sign of personal weakness. A minority wanted to avoid persons with similar problems, indicating that maintaining social distance was not a major issue. Carers had good knowledge of help seeking locations with a majority identifying psychiatrists and psychiatric wards in general hospitals.

Conclusion: The mental health literacy amongst the carers are lacking in certain areas. They have stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental illness.