Association between belief towards mental illness and help seeking behaviour among undergraduate students of Lalitpur district, Nepal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62992/ijphap.v2i4.59Keywords:
Beliefs, Help seeking, Mental illnessAbstract
Background: The prevalence of mental illness among adolescents is a growing concern, with projections indicating that one in five adolescents experience a mental illness annually. Persistent negative beliefs and stigma surrounding mental illness often lead to discrimination, creating barriers that hinder individuals from seeking the help they need. Additionally, the neglect of mental health issues, especially in developing countries like Nepal, is influenced by deep-seated social and cultural factors that are not widely acknowledged.
Objectives: To assess the association of belief towards mental illness and help seeking behaviour among undergraduate students of Lalitpur district, Nepal.
Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 undergraduate students of management faculty in Lalitpur district. Belief towards Mental Illness scale was used to assess belief and self-reported questionnaire was used for assessing help seeking behaviour. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between beliefs and help seeking behaviour adjusting for the confounders.
Results: More than half of the respondents had negative belief towards mental illness. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents had previously sought help while experiencing any kind of mental illness. The odds of not seeking help is higher by 1.71 times among those who had negative belief towards mental illness compared to those who had positive belief (95% CI 1.03,2.8) adjusting for the confounders.
Conclusion: Those students who had negative belief were less likely to seek help. This highlights the urgent need to address these negative beliefs through targeted interventions, aiming to alleviate such perceptions and foster improved help-seeking behaviour.
References
Lee FS, Heimer H, Giedd JN, Lein ES, Šestan N, Weinberger DR, et al. Adolescent mental health—opportunity and obligation. Science. 2014;346(6209):547-9.
Patel V, Flisher AJ, Hetrick S, McGorry P. Mental health of young people: a global public-health challenge. The lancet. 2007;369(9569):1302-13.
Whitlock J, Schantz K. Mental illness and mental health in adolescence. Research Facts and Findings. 2008;6.
Green CA, Wisdom JP, Wolfe L, Firemark A. Engaging youths with serious mental illnesses in treatment: STARS study consumer recommendations. Psychiatric rehabilitation journal. 2012;35(5):360.
Kabir M, Iliyasu Z, Abubakar IS, Aliyu MH. Perception and beliefs about mental illness among adults in Karfi village, northern Nigeria. BMC International Health and Human Rights. 2004;4:1-5.
NHRC. National Mental Health Survey Nepal 2020. 2021.
Dhungana RR, Pandey AR, Joshi S, Luitel NP, Marahatta K, Aryal KK, et al. The burden of mental disorders in Nepal between 1990 and 2019: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health. 2023;10:e61.
WHO. Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) - First edition2017.
Jurewicz I. Mental health in young adults and adolescents–supporting general physicians to provide holistic care. Clinical Medicine. 2015;15(2):151.
Corrigan PW, Watson AC. Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World psychiatry. 2002;1(1):16.
Luitel NP, Jordans MJD, Adhikari A, Upadhaya N, Hanlon C, Lund C, et al. Mental health care in Nepal: current situation and challenges for development of a district mental health care plan. Conflict and health. 2015;9:1-11.
Ministry of Health - MOH/Nepal, New ERA/Nepal, ICF. Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Kathmandu, Nepal: MOH/Nepal, New ERA, and ICF; 2017.
Hirai M, Clum GA. Development, reliability, and validity of the beliefs toward mental illness scale. Journal of psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. 2000;22:221-36.
Segal DL, Coolidge FL, Mincic MS, O'Riley A. Beliefs about mental illness and willingness to seek help: A cross-sectional study. Aging & mental health. 2005;9(4):363-7.
Latif AS. The importance of understanding social and cultural norms in delivering quality health care—A personal experience commentary. Tropical medicine and infectious disease. 2020;5(1):22.
Oliver MI, Pearson N, Coe N, Gunnell D. Help-seeking behaviour in men and women with common mental health problems: cross-sectional study. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;186(4):297-301.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Public Health Asia Pacific
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
International Journal of Public Health Asia Pacific (IJPHAP) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 international (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated. Please read our Policies page for more information on Open Access, copyright, and permissions.