The Community Attitudes And Behavior Towards People Living With Mental Illness: A Descriptive Study

Introduction: Mental health is still a significant problem in the world, because health is not only seen as free from disease but also includes all aspects of human life, physical, emotional, social and spiritual. The purpose of this study is to describe the attitudes and behavior of individuals in patients with mental disorders in the community. Method: This study used a quantitative descriptive design. The population in this study were people in three RWs in one urban village of Surakarta with a total of 4,465 people. The sample used in this study was 99 respondents using a simple random sampling. The analysis used is univariate analysis with a central tendency. The instrument used individual characteristics, attitudes and behavior towards mental patients Results: Based on the results of research on 99 respondents, it was found that the characteristics of the majority of respondents were female (64,6%), age 36-45 years (38,4%), being high school education level (53,5%) and the majority working as laborers (23,2%). The attitude of respondents to patients with mental disorders is negative or less supportive (52,52%), while the behavior of respondents to patients with mental disorders is considered less good (79,8%). Conclusions: The community still had negative attitude and poor behavior toward people living with mental illness. This result indicated the need for intervention and promotion about mental illness in the community setting.