Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The aim of the study was investigated the relationship between Attitude Towards
Mental Illness, Psychological Distress and Help Seeking Behavior among General
Population of Bahawalpur District. The correlational research design was employed
and survey method was used. A sample of 600 individuals with age range of 19-60 was
collected from the four tehsils (Ahmadpur, Hasilpur, Yazman and Bahawalpur) of
Bahawalpur District. Mean age of participants was 39.6 years. It was hypothesized that
(I) there would be a positive relationship between attitude towards mental illness
(authoritarian and social restrictiveness) and psychological distress in the general
population, (II) attitude towards mental illness (authoritarian and social restrictiveness)
would be negatively correlated with mental help seeking behavior among individuals,
(III) attitudes towards mental illness (benevolence and mental health ideology) would
be positively correlated with mental help seeking behavior among individuals in the
general population, (IV) attitudes towards mental illness (benevolence and mental
health ideology) would be negatively correlated with psychological distress and (V)
there would be the age and gender difference on the attitudes Towards Mental Illness,
psychological distress and help seeking behavior. These scales used to measure
community attitude towards mental illness (CAMI, Tylor and Dear 1981) was used to
measure the attitudes of the general population, similarly Kessler Psychological distress
(K-10, Kessler,1992) was used to measure the psychological distress and Mental Help
Seeking Intention Scale (MHSIS, Hammer,2013) was used to individuals’ intentions of
seeking help from mental health professionals. Pearson product movement coefficient,
T-test and ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that attitude
(benevolence, mental health ideology) have significantly negative relationship with
psychological distress and positive relationship with help seeking behavior. Moreover, attitudes (authoritarian, social restrictiveness) significantly positive relationship with
Psychological distress and negative relationship help seeking behavior. Statistically
there was no gender difference on attitude towards mental illness, psychological
distress and help seeking behavior. The findings are critical for designing public health
interventions that should be aimed to reduce stigma through education and awareness
efforts. Moreover, mental health services can be structured to minimize these barriers
and encourage individuals to seek early intervention.
