Abstract

Objective: Mental health issues are among the most common chronic conditions in society. The knowledge and attitudes of healthcare personnel towards mental illnesses play a crucial role in their treatment. The aim of this study is to assess the mental health literacy, attitudes towards mental health, and beliefs about mental illnesses among family physicians and family health workers, who play a key role in integrating mental health services into primary care.

Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 636 primary care healthcare personnel. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of the “Personal Characteristics Form,” “Mental Health Literacy Scale,” “Beliefs About Mental Illness Scale,” and the “Community Attitudes Toward Mentally Ill Scale.” The questionnaires were distributed and collected via postal service to and from participants’ work addresses. Since the scale data did not follow a normal distribution, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for comparisons. The relationships between the scales were examined using Pearson correlation analysis.

Results: The median score for the Mental Health Literacy Scale was 16±3.92, for the Beliefs About Mental Illness Scale it was 47±15.41, and for the Community Attitudes Toward Mentally Ill Scale it was 51±8.66. A strong negative correlation was found between the mental health literacy scale score and the subscales of danger (r=-0.07, p<0.05) and shame (r=-0.10, p<0.05) from the beliefs about mental illness scale. A strong positive correlation was also found between the mental health literacy scale score and the community attitudes towards mentally ill scale score (r=0.20, p<0.01) as well as the goodwill subscale (r=0.15, p<0.01). The help-seeking behavior for mental health represented by MHL-2 showed a strong negative correlation with the shame subscale of BMI-3 (r=-0.113, p<0.01).

Conclusion: This study revealed that primary care healthcare providers have above-average mental health literacy, and that the level of negative attitudes and beliefs towards mental illnesses is moderate. Further in-depth research on negative attitudes and beliefs is recommended.

Keywords: Primary care, Mental health, Literacy, Attitudes, Beliefs

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Güden E, Borlu A, Olguner Eker Ö, Özsoy S, Baykan Z, Durmuş Sarıkahya S. Assessment of Mental Health Literacy, Attitudes Towards Mental Health and Beliefs About Mental Illnesses Among Primary Healthcare Providers. Turk J Fam Pract. 2024;28(4):121-132. https://doi.org/10.54308/tahd.2024.42204

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