Health Care Students’ Attitudes towards People with Schizophrenia

Discrimination and stigmatization of people with mental illness are a global and complex phenomenon linked to problems of knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Negative attitudes, stereotypes and discrimination are still highly prevalent in the population, including health care staff and health care students. Stigma and discrimination in many ways affect people with a mental illness causing a lowered self-esteem and quality of life, and affecting possibilities of adequate housing, work and financial situation in a negative way.

In this paper, the authors asked students, whose future occupation would be in the social and health care fields, about how they perceived people suffering from schizophrenia, being as they are part of one of the most exposed subgroups of people with mental illness. And attitudes towards people with schizophrenia among 1101 students in eight different university programs providing training for work in the health care and social sectors were explored, using a cross-sectional design.

The results revealed that attitudes among students in different education programs showed that irrespective of program a great majority of the student’s perceived people with schizophrenia as unusual. In five of eight education programs a majority of the students perceived people with schizophrenia as a danger to others, and with regard to prospects of recovery more than a third of the students in seven of eight education programs were pessimistic about the possibilities to recover from schizophrenia. In several aspects police students were found to hold more negative attitudes than students from other programs. Students with previous experiences of work in mental health services and students knowing a person with schizophrenia showed more positive attitudes. And a larger proportion of students living alone perceived persons with schizophrenia as more unpredictable than students who were married or cohabiting.

In summary, attitudes among students towards people with schizophrenia are in several instances comparable with attitudes as presented by the general population. In order to decrease negative attitudes and prejudices towards people with schizophrenia among students, it is essential that the training includes personal contact with people with experiences of being mentally ill.

Article by Bengt Svensson, et al, from Sweden.

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