Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients

The benefits of public knowledge towards physical health are widely accepted but the area of mental health literacy remains undervalued and relatively neglected. The study aimed to identify caregivers’ mental health literacy in Malaysia. There were 154 family caregivers participated in the face-to...

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Main Authors: Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad, Zabidah, Putit, Fauziah, Ibrahim, Norul, Sar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Canadian Center of Science and Education 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/1/Mental%20Health%20Literacy%20among%20Family%20Caregivers%20of%20Schizophrenia%20%28abstract%29.pdf
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author Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad
Zabidah, Putit
Fauziah, Ibrahim
Norul, Sar
author_facet Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad
Zabidah, Putit
Fauziah, Ibrahim
Norul, Sar
author_sort Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad
building UNIMAS Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The benefits of public knowledge towards physical health are widely accepted but the area of mental health literacy remains undervalued and relatively neglected. The study aimed to identify caregivers’ mental health literacy in Malaysia. There were 154 family caregivers participated in the face-to-face semi-structured interview regarding their personal caring experiences. This study found that majority of the caregivers was women aged less than 60 years. Most of the caregivers have some understanding about their relatives’ mental illness. More than half of the participants found that the doctors were considered as their primary source of information about mental health. Consistent with previous literature in Malaysia, most of the caregivers used religious and traditional coping mechanism in their help-seeking processes. Each ethnic group had their own strong cultural beliefs about mental illness. The implications for mental health services are that many of the caregivers need help to educate their family members about mental illness. While this study emphasized on the family members who should be targeted to improve mental health literacy it also become significant to the public to reduce stigma towards the person with mental illness and their family.
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spelling unimas-155922020-08-07T07:04:01Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/ Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad Zabidah, Putit Fauziah, Ibrahim Norul, Sar HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare The benefits of public knowledge towards physical health are widely accepted but the area of mental health literacy remains undervalued and relatively neglected. The study aimed to identify caregivers’ mental health literacy in Malaysia. There were 154 family caregivers participated in the face-to-face semi-structured interview regarding their personal caring experiences. This study found that majority of the caregivers was women aged less than 60 years. Most of the caregivers have some understanding about their relatives’ mental illness. More than half of the participants found that the doctors were considered as their primary source of information about mental health. Consistent with previous literature in Malaysia, most of the caregivers used religious and traditional coping mechanism in their help-seeking processes. Each ethnic group had their own strong cultural beliefs about mental illness. The implications for mental health services are that many of the caregivers need help to educate their family members about mental illness. While this study emphasized on the family members who should be targeted to improve mental health literacy it also become significant to the public to reduce stigma towards the person with mental illness and their family. Canadian Center of Science and Education 2012 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/1/Mental%20Health%20Literacy%20among%20Family%20Caregivers%20of%20Schizophrenia%20%28abstract%29.pdf Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad and Zabidah, Putit and Fauziah, Ibrahim and Norul, Sar (2012) Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients. Asian Social Science, 8 (9). ISSN 1911-2025 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272691108_Mental_Health_Literacy_among_Family_Caregivers_of_Schizophrenia_Patients DOI: 10.5539/ass.v8n9p74
spellingShingle HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Mohd Suhaimi, Mohamad
Zabidah, Putit
Fauziah, Ibrahim
Norul, Sar
Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title_full Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title_fullStr Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title_short Mental Health Literacy among Family Caregivers of Schizophrenia Patients
title_sort mental health literacy among family caregivers of schizophrenia patients
topic HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/15592/1/Mental%20Health%20Literacy%20among%20Family%20Caregivers%20of%20Schizophrenia%20%28abstract%29.pdf