Nonmental Healthcare Professionals’ Attitudes Toward Mental Health Services in Asir Region, KSA

Objectives: Most patients who visit other clinics are surprised when they referred to psychiatric clinics, which may be related to the social stigma of mental illness or nonmental health professionals’ (NMHPs) negative attitude toward psychiatric illness. The study aimed to assess attitudes toward mental health services among NMHPs in Asir region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and to correlate the results with different variables. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among NMHPs (n=358) in Asir region of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia by using an electronic questionnaire through WhatsApp application. Results: Young age, female gender, single marital status, did not ever had known or shared in giving care to a mentally ill person, work experience less than 10 years, nursing specialty, and holding diploma degree represented the significant statistical correlation with negative attitudes toward mental health services scale (p-value = <0.001; 0.01; 0.003; 0.02; <0.001; 0.02 and <0.001, respectively). Conclusion: This study demonstrates positive attitude toward mental health services among NMHPs. There is need for better educational measures and more training courses at the undergraduate level of NMHPs in order to improve such attitude. Future research could investigate the outcomes of these measures and courses.