Mental Health Literacy among Psychiatric Patients’ Family Caregivers

Abstract

Background: Lack of MHL is thought to be a major contributor to the rise in morbidity and mortality rates among individuals with mental illnesses. If the community merely had more understanding about mental health issues, the ability to recognize such conditions, and the search for appropriate and timely treatment (Tay et al., 2018), a significant number of additional lives could be spared. Aim: To assess the level of mental health literacy among psychiatric patients’ family caregivers. Settings: It was conducted at El-Maamoura Hospital for Psychiatric Medicine's outpatient clinic. Egypt. Subjects: composed of 270 family caregivers of patients with psychiatric disorders. Tools: two tools were developed and used by researcher to collect the necessary data: Tool one: Patients and Structured Interview Schedule for Family Carers' Socio-Demographic and Clinical Data. Tool two: Mental Health Literacy Scale. Results: Majority of Patients’ family caregivers demonstrated moderate level of MHL and only 19.6% had a high MHL level. The high MHL level was statistically significant associated with their socio-demographic characteristics including their gender, old age, higher educational level, work status, marital status and their patient’s insight.