Lay Summary

(1) The study was undertaken to understand the different views and perspectives of the people at the Botanical Gardens, India prior to developing a mental health awareness cum training program for the same population. (2) The study explicitly exhibited the limited awareness such as it being caused by supernatural forces and poor recognition of mental health problems leading to delayed treatment turn up. (3) The study urges the key stakeholders and the public to end the stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental illness. This could be due to various reasons such as cultural beliefs, influence of media and stigma associated with mental health conditions.

Background

The prevalence of mental health issues in India is increasing. The lack of knowledge about mental illnesses and negative beliefs about treatment usually lead to delayed treatment and has a huge impact on care seeking behaviour. Therefore, the study aimed at raising mental health literacy, awareness knowledge and reducing knowledge gap for early recognition and intervention of mental disorders which is a major barrier and challenge to mental health services in India. The study aimed at exploring the awareness of mental health among the employees of the botanical gardens to address this massive issue.

Methods

The study was a cross-sectional qualitative research design. The total sample size comprised of 15 employees (age range: 35-45) and purposive sampling was used. Two focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted at a renowned botanical garden in the languages: Kannada and English. Each of the FGDs had a moderator and took approximately an hour to be completed. The FGDs were audiotaped and was focused on examining the following: understanding of mental illness, its symptoms, causes, impact, and treatment. The data were analysed manually by the method of Directed Content Analysis.

Results

There were four key findings of the study: 1. Signs and symptoms of mental illness: Mental illness was described in terms of psychosis i.e. delusions, hallucinations and talking incoherently. 2. Causes of mental illness: The participants explained the causes of mental illness could be due to traumatic situations, physical health ailments and sexual abuse etc. 3. Impact of mental health issues: The participants did not have a clear idea about what it was to be diagnosed with disorders other than physical ailments such as fever and body pain 4. Capacity building with regard to mental health problems: The participants identified the need for getting more awareness program and guidance to work with persons with mental illness in the community and providing first aid in cases of mental health crisis.

Conclusion

The study is instrumental as it shows that the knowledge of mental health is limited among the employees. This thereby leads to an immediate need for developing a well-structured training program to increase the mental health literacy thereby bringing down the level of stigma. This will be of immense benefit to the public and society at large by deconstructing various myths and stigmas as well as in heightening help seeking behaviour. Increased mental health literacy will also help in acceleration of early identification and prompt referrals. There is a need for a structure training program to reduce the sense of disability and instill a sense of functionality.