PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS AND THE ATTITUDE OF HEALTH WORKERS (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a mental or behavioral pattern or anomaly that causes either suffering or an impaired ability to function in ordinary life (disability), and which is not developmentally or socially normative. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. Mental disorder is one aspect of mental health. The scientific study of mental disorders is called psychopathology.
The universality of harmful beliefs and subsequent negative attitudes towards the mentally ill is not in doubt (Thara and Srinivasan 2000; Murphy 2002; Botha et al. 2006). This study is set out to identify the persistent socio-cultural factors impeding the acceptability of mentally sick persons in Nigeria, particularly among health care providers in Ogun State. The concept of mental health or illness has a problematic definition because it is largely subjective. It can only achieve a near uniformity of meaning in the medical arena although a complete state of mental health or well being is almost impossible to attain. The sufferers of mental illness are part of the society but are viewed differently by the society (C.M.H.A. 1993; Murphy 2002; Paterson 2006). Therefore, societal reaction to the mentally sick varies from society to society, as the culture of a people is also a model for human behaviour.
African societies have a peculiar attitude towards the sick or mentally ill persons and this isevident in the rejection, scornful disposition and a negative perception of the sick individual(Sharma 1998; Mohammed et al. 2004; Mohammed and Mohammed 2008). Mental illness is a disorder of one or more of the functions of the mind such as emotion, perception, memory or thoughts, which causes suffering to the person and embarrassment to the family and society. There are a varied number of mental illnesses but the most common and broader classification ispsychoses, neuroses and mental retardation. Mental illness could be spurred by environmentalor cultural factors and also, by physiological malfunctioning and heredity, these are referredto as functional and organic psychoses respectively.
