CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Disabilities associated with chronic mental illness constitute major social, economic, and public health problems (Kendrick, Tyree, & Freeing, 2001, Kaplan & Sadock, 1998). These disabilities afflict more than 3 million people in the United State, and 0.5 million in Nigeria. The most common are anxiety disorders followed by depressive disorders and alcohol or other substance abuse. Surveys also found that 15 percent of non-psychiatric patients have an associated emotional disorder (Kaplan & Sadock, 1998). Higher rates of mental disorder are found in persons under age 45 than in those over 45. Women are significantly higher than males for all depressive and generalized anxiety disorders. Men, however, have higher rates of substance-related disorders and antisocial personality disorders. Although schizophrenia affects I percent of the population show similar rates for both males and females (Kaplan & Sadock, 1998). Traditionally, chronic mental illness has been associated with older patients who have a long history of mental hospitalization; recently it includes young adults with a variety of mental disorders that have grown up in the era of de institutionalization. De institutionalization is a process by which large numbers of patients are discharged from public psychiatric hospitals and put back into the community to receive outpatient care (Kaplan & Sadock, 1998).
