Factors affecting public attitudes towards mental health care

This study presents a telephone survey of 501 randomly sampled residents of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg older than 15 years of age. The interviewees were questioned on their attitudes and judgements towards mental health care in Luxembourg. The implementation of a community-based mental-health-services delivery system in Luxembourg is in its initial stages. Being the smallest member of the European Community Luxembourg offers the opportunity to analyze a whole catchment area in transition marked off clearly by national borders. As a general rule the people of Luxembourg are undecided when it comes to mental health care. Almost half of the sample answered "don't know" when asked about the quality of several sectors of mental health care, excluding inpatient care. The factors that had a significant influence on the attitude of the people of Luxembourg regarding mental health care were nationality, age, class and personal contact with mentally ill persons, with a tendency of worse judgements in younger age groups and in members of upper social classes. We fitted multivariate models including these variables. The results of our study point to entrenched prejudice. The findings suggest, however, that attitudes are changeable by direct or indirect contact with mentally ill persons. Possible strategies that could change public attitudes towards mental health care in a mental health care system that is in transition are discussed.