Knowledge and attitudes about mental disorders among principals of adult education schools

Background: The Ministry of Health is stepping up its efforts to both reduce the inpatient psychiatric population and enable former inmates to become fully reintegrated into society. The latter aim includes the provision of formal education for those with mental disorders who did not complete a full cycle of schooling. Stigma and discrimination at school may lead to the failure of this program. Objective: To explore the knowledge and attitudes of the principals of schools for adult education towards mental illness and persons with mental disorders. Method: Almost all countrywide school principals (93.8%, n=76) were interviewed by telephone using a short questionnaire of 16 items tapping their knowledge and attitudes. Frequency distributions, Chi-square and t-tests were used to analyze the data. Results: The school principals were able to mention a fewer number of mental disorders in contrast to medical conditions, used as reference criteria. They recognized psychosis but not depression as a mental disorder. Their attitudes revealed an ambivalent approach to the person with a mental disorder, including those that are students. Higher level of academic education was associated with positive attitudes, while personal familiarity with a mentally disturbed person was slightly associated with more positive school-related attitudes. Conclusions: The results suggest a "case for action": programs to enhance mental health knowledge and foster more positive attitudes among school principals would seem to be needed. This would better assure the integration of the former inpatient into the adult education system.