Attitudes of mental health workers’ toward mentally ill patients in a small city situated in the Rio de Janeiro state

Introduction  As there are few studies about evaluation of attitudes of mental health workers towards individuals with mental disorders in Brazil, especially in small and medium-sized towns. A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess attitudes of mental health professionals working in a small city situated in the Rio de Janeiro State.

Methods  Data were collected using the Community Attitudes Towards Mentally Ill (CAMI-BR) in a population of mental health professionals working in Carmo in November 2015. The CAMI consists of four subscales: Authoritarianism, Benevolence, Social Restrictiveness and Community Mental Health Ideology.

Results  Most workers presented positive attitudes towards psychiatric patients. The subscale with the highest score was Benevolence followed by Community Ideology, while Social Restriction and Authoritarianism obtained the lowest scores. The following individual characteristics were associated with positive attitudes: age group, professional category and educational level, being the youngest people with higher level education showing more positive attitudes. The caregivers presented more negative attitudes when compared to the other categories.

Conclusion  Although there are still some authoritarian professionals` attitudes in the care of psychiatric patients in Carmo, these workers have positive attitudes related to the treatment of people with mental disorders and their inclusion in the community, which strengthens the implementation of psychiatric care reforms in the town.

Keywords:
social stigma; mental disorders; attitude; deinstitutionalization