Attitudes Towards Mental Illness and Knowledge of Mental Health Services Among the Australian and Chinese Community

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the attitudes toward mental illness and knowledge of mental health services among Anglo-Australian and Chinese-Australian adults. Participants included 105 Anglo-Australians and 129 Chinese-Australians. Participants were requested to complete a questionnaire on attitudes toward mental illness and knowledge of mental health service available in the community. The results indicated that there was a significant ethnic difference in attitudes towards mental illness. Chinese-Australians endorsed authoritarian, restrictive attitudes towards people with mental illness and interpersonal etiology more than Anglo-Australians. There was also a significant difference in attitudes towards mental illness due to the amount of contact with people with mental illness. The more contact the participants had with people with mental illness, the less they endorsed authoritarian, and restrictive attitudes toward people with mental illness. Though there was a non-significant difference in knowledge of mental health services due to ethnic origin or amount of contact with people with mental illness, there were ethnic differences in the type of mental health services preferred. Among Chinese-Australians, age was positively related to knowledge of services for acute and chronic cases of mental illness. Implications for community mental health education programs are discussed.