Attitudes of mental health workers towards patients with schizophrenia in the Gaza Strip
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Date
2016-01-02
Authors
Omar Yousef Sudkar
عمر يوسف سكر
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
This study was designed to examine the attitude of mental illness professionals toward
individuals with schizophrenia within Gaza Strip. 13 Psychiatrist, 11 Clinical Psychologist,
16 Psychologist, 16 Clinical Social Worker, 35 Psychiatric Nurse and 13 Other
(Directorates and Pharmacists ) Professionals were assessed using the General Attribution
Questionnaire (G-AQ-23) with eight factors Fear, Dangerousness, Avoid, Anger, Pity,
Responsible, Help and Improvable. Of the 104 participants working on General
Directorate of Mental Health Ministry of Health MOH included in the convenient sample,
46 were female (44.2%) and 58 were male (55.8%), with ages ranging from 21 through 60
(M = 37.71 years, SD = 8.67 years). Although no statistically significant differences were
found between male and female on 5 attitudinal factors, differences were found on 3
factors assessing the emotional responses of fear and help toward persons with
schizophrenia, as well as avoid. The result showed that female attitude were more negative
on two factors fear and avoid but the female were more positive on help factor. In addition,
significant differences were found between the attitudes held by participants with Diploma
degree and participants with Master or Doctoral degree on factor of Fear, the diploma were
more negative, significant differences were also found between participants with
Bachelor’s degree and participants with Master or Doctoral degree on the measure of
Anger the Bachelors were more negative on anger factor. One-way ANOVA's test was
conducted to understand the differences on attitudes for participants with different
position/occupation. the results showed there are significant differences between
participants whom reported their positions as Psychiatrist and participants were identified
as Psychologist on the factor of Fear. Significant differences were also found between
participants whom reported their positions as Psychiatrist and participants were identified
as Psychologist, Clinical Social Worker or other on the measure of Responsible. Pearson
correlation coefficients were used to determine the strength of relationship between age of
participants and their attitudes toward patients with schizophrenia the results showed there
are a significant negative correlation between age and all attitudes, except responsible and
improvable were insignificantly negatively correlated with age. These results indicate that
older professional hold significantly more positive attitudes toward people with
schizophrenia than younger participants. Results also indicate that older age, being female,
higher education level, and more years of experience providing direct clinical services to
persons with schizophrenia have a positive effect on attitude factor. The strength of
relationship between years of experience of participants and their attitudes toward patients
with schizophrenia were also investigated by Pearson correlation coefficients, correlation
analysis showed significant negative correlation between years of experience and all
attitudes, except responsible and improvable were insignificantly negatively correlated
with years of experience. The findings are congruent with past research findings and
support the position that increased knowledge of and more experience with mental illness
person is associated with more favorable views.