Mental health-related knowledge, attitudes and practices in two kibbutzim

This study explored mental health-related knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) in two kibbutzim (collective villages). These kibbutzim share many features, e. g., history, origin of the population, community institutions, and political affiliation. They differ, however, in that one of them keeps fully the collectivist ideology, while the other is undergoing privatization; this is a process that may loosen the solidarity on which the kibbutz movement was conceived.

A brief self-administered questionnaire exploring KAP within the kibbutz context was completed anonymously by 108 members in one kibbutz and 90 in the other. Univariate and multivariate methods of analyses were applied.

Mental health literacy was high, 75% endorsed a multifactorial causation of mental disorders, and 79% thought that they were treatable. The definition of what constitutes a mental disorder, however, was limited, 43% for psychosis and 10% for depression. Kibbutz members held contrasting attitudes toward members with mental disorders; while the majority supported their social integration, 85% stated that their access to the commune's highest offices would be denied. The kibbutz would provide financial support more often to a member with cancer, 94%, than to one with depression, 81%. Attitudes towards outsiders were more negative, 68% stated that the kibbutz would refuse membership to an applicant that recovered from a mental illness. Use of mental health services was high, with a lifetime rate in the total sample of 38%.

The mental health KAP among these kibbutz members have not developed in parallel. While the attitudes are mixed at best, knowledge and practice are more positive. Since the kibbutz strives to be an egalitarian society and the members are highly educated, the study of this collective may suggest the possible KAP ceiling in the general society. The privatization process initiated in one of the kibbutzim has not affected the KAP, but the process is too novel to assess its impact.