Attitude and knowledge of physiotherapy students toward mental health and patients with psychiatric illnesses

Background: Stigma and violations of human rights directed toward people with psychiatric disorders hinder their care and rehabilitation. The role of physiotherapists in mental illness is to facilitate motivation, emphasize strengths, and offer positive feedback through cognitive therapy, guided imagery, body and movement awareness, relaxation and breathing techniques, yoga therapy, and aerobic exercises. It is important to understand the beliefs, knowledge, and attitude of physiotherapists toward psychiatric illness which in turn helps in better rehabilitation of such patients. Hence, the purpose of this study is to assess the attitude and knowledge of physiotherapy students toward mental health and patients with psychiatric illnesses and also to identify the barrier faced by them. Methods: Overall 191 physiotherapy students participated in this observational study, where students were assessed for their attitude toward patients having psychiatric disorders and knowledge regarding the same. The attitude was assessed using the Mental Illness Clinicians' Attitude version 4 whereas knowledge was assessed using a prevalidated questionnaire. Both self-reported questionnaires were filled online by physiotherapy students. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 20. The correlation between attitude and knowledge was done using Spearman's coefficient of rank correlation. Results: The majority of students had a moderately positive attitude with little room for improvement (57.07%) followed by 40.31% having a negative attitude. Good knowledge was found in 59.69% of students followed by 22.51% of students having moderate and 14.14% excellent knowledge. It was observed a negative significant correlation between attitude and knowledge (r = −0.369, P < 0.001). Gender, year of study, and age have a considerable impact on one's knowledge and attitude. Conclusion: This study concludes that knowledge and attitude are negatively correlated indicating the need to change the attitude of physiotherapy students and to make them understand their role in the rehabilitation of patients with psychiatric disorders.