Original scientific paper
The Attitudes and Sterotypes of Supporting Fields towards the Persons with Disabilities
Ana Godan
Lovorka Brajković
Višnja Fortuna
Ljiljana Godan
Abstract
The aim of this research was to establish the attitudes, the views and reactions of the helping fields (which include social
workers and medical nurses) and those who aren’t the part of that cathegory, towards the mentally ill people.One
hundred and twenty persons questioned have taken part in this research where in the group of supporting fields consisted
of social workers and medical nurses (N = 40). The questionnaire was used in examining the attitudes of those
questioned persons, the questionnaire that was used in Joki}-Begi}’s research (2005) and it turned out to be a really good
one in defining the attitudes and stereotypes towards the mentally ill persons. The questionnaire consisted of several
parts in which different things have been examined such as stereotypes, knowledge, attitudes, level of acceptance and social-
demographic information. The research has shown the differences among the attitudes and the level of acceptance
of the mentally ill as well as the level of knowledge which the examinees had. All the examinees that have been the part of
this research mentioned » ill » as a dominant trait of the mentally disturbed person. Furthermore, the characteristics
such as instability, insecurity, nervousness and inclination to suicide, indicate that all of these three groups of examinees
have sterotypes about unstable emotional condition and state of mind of the sick.The examinees that don’t belong to this
group of supporting fields have enough knowledge neither about the emergence of the disease nor about its development
and preventive measures. However, the social workers have a bit more negative attitude towards the mentally ill if compared
to medical nurses which could be explained by insufficient working experience with the mentioned group of patients.
It’s important to say that all of the three groups of examinees don’t have extremely negative attitudes towards the
people with mental disorder. We shouldn’t ignore the fact that these three groups have noticable social restraint towards
the mentally ill and they cannot easily accept them in their own environment. Considering the fact there is a low number
of researches that deal with this problem of labelling or in other words- stigmatization of the mentally ill, this research
gives a great stimulus for writeup this very important problem area, especially if we take into consideration that the attitude
of the community may help to bring about the feeling of marginalization and unacceptability with the mentally ill.
Keywords
stigma; mentally ill person; sterotype; attitude
Hrčak ID:
27051
URI
Publication date:
2.9.2008.
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