The perception of the local communities of Ishaka Town Council towards psychiatric patients and services at Kampala International Universities Teaching Hospital
Loading...
Date
2014-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kampala International University, School of Health Sciences
Abstract
The prevailing view of health-related stigma is that it refers to perceived, enacted, or anticipated avoidance or social exclusion, and not to an individual blemish or mark (Weiss, Ramakrishna & Somma 2006; Goffman 1963). Embarrassment associated with accessing mental health services is one of the many barriers that cause people to hide their symptoms and to prevent them from getting necessary treatment for their mental illness symptoms (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999; 2001; Greene-Shortridge et al., 2007; Nadeem et al., 2007). A community based survey was conducted within Ishaka Town in Bwegiragye Ward involving 73 respondents and 7 key informants to determine the attitudes of the local community of Ishaka towards psychiatric patients and services at Kampala International University Teaching Hospital. The study showed that most of the respondents did not seek psychiatric services from KIU-TH, 74(93.67%) and those who sought services from KIU-TH was 5 (7.33%) of the respondents, and that most respondents believed that mental illness can be cured 32(40.5%), and most of the KIs agreed that mental health problems are common in their society and yet the understanding about this problem is low. According to the group of respondents, the most common causes of mental health in the community is drugs and substance abuse, traditional causes (mostly mentioned was bewitching and bad lack), and that they were not sure of the cause. This study concluded that the utilization of psychiatric services from KIU-TH is low and this is due to the divided opinions on the causes and outcomes of psychiatric illness among the communities in Ishaka town council in Bushenyi district. The study recommended that; The hospital should conduct community based mental health education to improve community understanding of the causes and outcomes of mental health, the hospital should liaise with local leaders to address the challenges of drug abuse that was consistently reported by the community as the common cause of mental health problem within Ishaka Town Council and the university should carry out more studies with a wider scope to describe the pattern of utilization of psychiatric services from alternative sources to improve on advocacy and education about mental health problems.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery of Kampala International University
Keywords
Psychiatric patients and services, Psychiatry, Kampala International Universities Teaching Hospital