Knowledge Status on Mental Health among Health Professionals of Chitwan District, Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Mental health issues are not openly shared by people due to the negative stigma that it carries. In addition, health professionals lack adequate knowledge on mental health issues. This prevents effective management of patients with mental illness.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among hundred health professionals working in government health institutions of Chitwan District in order to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices on different aspects of mental illness. Knowledge score was added for each domain and changed to categorical variable. Chi- square and fisher-exact test was done accordingly. P-value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant.

Results: Age of respondents ranged from 18 to 59 years. A significant number of respondents had very little knowledge on mental health issues and its causes. Majority of them identified neurosis as types of mental illness followed by personality disorder, psychosis and substance abuse. Only a quarter had better knowledge about the treatment. Age group, being male or female, high or low income, knowledge on mental illness, knowledge on type, causes, signs and symptoms, attitudes and practices of mental illness was significantly different between four levels of health professionals namely Health Assistants (HA), Staff Nurse (SN), Community Medical Assistants (CMA) and Auxillary Nurse Midwife (ANM).

Conclusions: The findings suggest that further information regarding mental illness, its sign/ symptoms, causes and treatment modalities should be provided to health workers along with actions to reduce stigma related to mental illness among them.