The opinions of the physicians and nurses working at psychiatry and other clinics towards the individuals with mental disorders

Health professionals can be confronted with individuals who have mental illness both in community and working areas. The opinions of the health professionals about these individuals, directly affect the quality of the care. Attitudes of the psychiatry and other clinics' personel to these patients affect early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.Aim: This study aimed to determine the opinions of the physicians and nurses of psychiatry and other clinics, about the psychiatric patients.Method: Study group included 157 nurses and 141 physicians from psychiatry and other( internal medicine and surgery) clinics accepted to participate this study from Manisa Neuropsychiatry Hospital, Dokuz Eylül University Medical School Hospital, Ege University Medical School Hospital, Atatürk Teaching Hospital. Data were collected with OMI scale( Opinions about Mental Illness Scale) and informative form. For data analysis t test was used for independent groups and Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and Spearman Correlation analysis for nonparametric independent groups.Results: Average points of the psychiatry nurses for mental hygiene ideology were lower than the nurses of other clinics and significantly higher for social restrictiveness. Average points of the psychiatry doctors for authoritarianism, mental hygiene ideology, interpersonal etiology and social restrictiveness were lower than the doctors of other clinics but, average benevolence points were higher.Conclusion: Nurses of psychiatry clinic and doctors from the clinics other than psychiatry have more negative opinions and attitudes for mentally sick patients. According to these results an awareness and training program is recommended for attitudes of the doctors and nurses.Key words: Mental illness, stigma, attitude for mental illness