Attitude towards Mental Illness among Rural and Urban Community Setting: A Comparative Study

Background: Mental illness refers to some alteration in psychological functions which adversely affects an individual’s life as well as surrounding environment. The stigmatization and labeling of mental illness is a major problem which affects patients and their caregivers as well as institutions and health care professionals working with persons with mental illness. Many individuals with mental problems are discriminated against because of their mental illness. Aims: To Assess and Compare the Community attitude towards mental illness in Rural and Urban Populations. Method: 60 Samples (30 Urban Populations & 30 Rural Populations) were included, who qualified the inclusion criteria and samples were selected based on Purposive Sampling technique. Community attitude towards Mentally Ill Scale was administered on the samples and data was analyzed using SPSS 20 version. Result and Conclusion. Result showed high and positive attitude towards mental illness in urban population except social restrictiveness.