Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 2 of 2
Factors influencing social distance toward people with mental illness
- Authors:
- LAUBER Christoph, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Community Mental Health Journal, 40(3), June 2004, pp.265-274.
- Publisher:
- Springer
When identifying ways to reduce stigmatization because of mental illness it is crucial to understand contributing factors. Social distance—the willingness to engage in relationships of varying intimacy with a person—is an indicator of public attitudes toward persons with mental illness. Multiple linear regression analysis of the results of a vignette-based opinion survey conducted on a representative population sample in Switzerland (n = 594). The level of social distance increases if situations imply social closeness. The vignette describing a person with schizophrenia, attitudes to general aspects of mental health (lay helping, community psychiatry), emotions toward those affected, and the attitude toward consequences of mental illness (medical treatment, medication side effects, negative sanctions, e.g. withdrawal of the driver license) were found to predict social distance. Demographic factors such as age, gender, and the cultural background influence social distance. The explained variance (R2) is 44.8%. Social distance is a multifaceted concept influenced by, e.g., socio-economic and cultural factors, but also by the respondent's general attitude toward (mental) health issues. These results suggest that more knowledge about mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia, may increase social distance. The findings presented here may help to focus anti-stigma campaigns not only on transmission of knowledge, but on integrating different approaches.
Service provision for elderly depressed persons and political and professional awareness for this subject: a comparison of six European countries
- Author:
- BRAMSFELD Anke
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18(5), May 2003, pp.392-401.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Under-treatment of depression in late-life is a subject of rising public health concern throughout Europe. This study investigates and compares the availability of services for depressed elderly persons in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Additionally, it explores factors that might contribute to an adequate services supply for depressed elderly people. Review of the literature and guide supported expert interviews. Analysis of the practice of care provision for depressed elderly persons and of indicators for political and professional awareness, such as university chairs, certification processes and political programmes in gerontopsychiatry. Only Switzerland and the UK offer countrywide community-oriented services for depressed elderly persons. Clinical experience in treating depression in late-life is not regularly acquired in the vocational training of the concerned professionals. Indicators suggest that the medical society and health politics in Switzerland and the UK regard psychiatric disease in the elderly more importantly than it is the case in the other investigated countries. Service provision for depressed elderly persons seems to be more elaborated and better available in countries where gerontopsychiatry is institutionalised to a greater extend in the medical society and health politics.