Mental-Illness-Related Stigma in Health Care in South India: Mixed-Methods Study

Stigma related to mental illness is a reality among health care providers. This study is an attempt to understand the attitudes of doctors from different specialties toward mental illness and the stigma related to it.

We used a concurrent nested mixed-methods approach to understand and identify the various factors of mental-illness-related stigma in medical practitioners. Between November 2018 and March 2019, 100 medical practitioners from South India were administered a self-reporting OMS-HC (Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers), followed by in-depth interviews among 25 of the 100 participants selected using purposive sampling. Quantitative surveys were analyzed using SPSSv23. In-depth interviews were transcribed as extended notes, translated, and initially explored using focused coding and the constant comparative method.

Though findings from quantitative analysis show low to moderate stigma (Mean = 53.52, SD = 7.61), the qualitative study revealed unintended and covert negative attitude toward mental illness.

As stigma occurs at various levels-structural, institutional, interpersonal, and personal-anti-stigma measures also need to be systematically designed. Qualitative studies give more insight regarding the nature of stigma in medical practitioners toward mental illness.