• español
    • English
    • português
  • English 
    • español
    • English
    • português
  • IRIS PAHO Home
  • PAHO website
  • Indexes
  • All Collections
  • About IRIS
  • Institutional Memory
  • Our Newsletter
  • Contact
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
View Item 
  •   IRIS PAHO Home
  • 1.PAHO Headquarters / Sede de la OPS
  • Scientific Journals and Newsletters / Revistas Científicas y Boletines
  • Pan American Journal of Public Health
  • View Item
  •   IRIS PAHO Home
  • 1.PAHO Headquarters / Sede de la OPS
  • Scientific Journals and Newsletters / Revistas Científicas y Boletines
  • Pan American Journal of Public Health
  • View Item

Attitudes towards mental illness in the Commonwealth of Dominica

Thumbnail
View/Open
1405.pdf (115.1Kb)
Date
2000
Author
Kohn, Robert
Sharma, David
Camilleri, Christopher P
Levav, Itzhak
Metadata
Show full item record

Abstract
Little is known about the perception of mental illness in the English-speaking Caribbean. This study was conducted in 1995 to determine the attitudes, knowledge, and help-seeking practices for emotional disorders in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Two groups in Dominica were surveyed: 67 community leaders, consisting of nurses, teachers, and police officers; and 135 community members grouped into five socioeconomic strata that were collapsed to three for the analysis. All the respondents were asked to identify and suggest management of individuals with psychosis, alcoholism, depression, and childhood hyperactivity, as depicted in case vignettes. The person in the psychosis vignette was diagnosed as suffering from mental illness by 84.0 per cent of the leaders and by 71, 2 per cent of the community members. However, in each of the three other vignettes, fewer than 30 per cent of the respondents thought that mental illness was present. The person with alcoholism was viewed as having a serious problem by only slightly more than half of the respondents. Fewer than half of the respondents thought that the individuals with depression or hyperactivity had serious problems. The community leaders did somewhat worse in redcognizing mental illness than did the community members. Respondents were most likely to refer a family member with emotional problems to a medical practitioner. In conclusion, education about mental health problems is needed in Dominica. Especially disconcerting was the lack of knowledge on mental illness among nurses, teachers, and police officers, that is, professionals directly involved in the pathway to care
Series
Rev Panam Salud Publica;7(3),mar. 2000
Subject
Saúde Mental; Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde; Serviços de Saúde Mental; Coleta de Dados; Dominica
URI
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892000000300002&lng=pt&nrm=iso
https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/8846
Citation
Kohn, Robert,Sharma, David,Camilleri, Christopher P,Levav, Itzhak (2000) Attitudes towards mental illness in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Rev Panam Salud Publica;7(3) -,mar. 2000. Retrieved from http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892000000300002&lng=pt&nrm=iso
Collections
  • Pan American Journal of Public Health

Related items

Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

  • Thumbnail

    Nurses’ perception of preparedness for moving mental health care from psychiatric to general hospitals in Jamaica 

    Douglas, Claudine; Standard-Goldson, Aileen; James, Kenneth; Abel, Wendel (2018-10)
    [ABSTRACT]. Objectives. To examine nurses’ perception of readiness to care for patients with mental illness at two general hospitals in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Methods. This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study was conducted ...
  • Thumbnail

    Evaluación del sistema de salud mental en México: ¿hacia dónde encaminar la atención? 

    Berenzon Gorn, Shoshana; Saavedra Solano, Nayelhi; Medina-Mora Icaza, María Elena; Aparicio Basaurí, Víctor; Galván Reyes, Jorge (2013)
  • Thumbnail

    Access to mental health care in El Salvador: a case study of progress toward decentralization 

    Nickels, Samuel V; Campos Tomasino, Mariely; Flamenco Arvaiza, Nelson A.; Hunter, Cynthia A. (2018-10)
    [ABSTRACT]. Objective. To assess the need for decentralization of psychiatric services in El Salvador, based on country-specific evidence, and to generate baseline measures the government and researchers could use to monitor ...

Browse

All of IRIS PAHOCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsSeries TitleType of materialLanguageCategoryThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsSeries TitleType of materialLanguageCategory

Statistics

View Usage Statistics

Pan American Health Organization
World Health Organization. Regional Office for the Americas
525 Twenty-third Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037, United States of America
Tel.: +1 (202) 974-3000 Fax: +1 (202) 974-3663
email: libraryhq@paho.org

Links

  • PAHO Featured Publications
  • WHO Digital Library (IRIS)
  • Virtual Health Library (VHL)
  • Global Index Medicus (GIM)