Evaluating the Changes in Attitudes Towards Mental Illness and Physical Disabilities After an Anti-Stigma Course for Occupational Therapy Students.

Objective: This study assessed changes in attitudes towards mental illness and physical disabilities in occupational therapy (OT) students after an anti-stigma course (AS group) and compared the changes in attitudes with a control (CT group) attending a sociology course.

Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used in this study with 65 OT students across two academic years (AS group: n = 33; CT group: n = 32). Stigmatizing attitudes and social distance towards mental illness and physical disabilities were measured before and after course completion.

Results: Compared with the CT group, the AS group showed a significantly greater reduction in social distance towards mental illness (t = 1.974, p = .027) and decreases in stigmatizing attitudes (t = 2.087, p = .021) and social distance (t = 2.512, p = .008) towards physical disabilities. In addition, both groups reported greater social distance towards mental illness than towards physical disabilities in both the pretest and posttest.

Conclusions: A multimodal anti-stigma course may decrease social distance towards mental illness as well as stigmatizing attitudes and social distance concerning physical disabilities among OT students. However, further refinement of the anti-stigma course, with a particular emphasis on mental health stigma, is warranted.