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01-05-2020 | Original Paper

Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness and Its Correlates in Psychiatric Hospitals of Attica: The Role of Workers’ Empathy

Authors: Marina Economou, Lily Evangelia Peppou, Konstantinos Kontoangelos, Alexandra Palli, Irene Tsaliagkou, Emilia-Maria Legaki, Rossetos Gournellis, Charalampos Papageorgiou

Published in: Community Mental Health Journal | Issue 4/2020

Abstract

To describe mental health workers’ attitudes to severe mental illness and to explore its socio-demographic and professional correlates, including the influence of empathy. A total of 127 mental health staff working on the psychiatric hospitals of Attica participated in the study. Stigma was assessed with the Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness scale (ASMI) and the Greek Social Distance scale; whilst Empathy with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Participants’ unfavourable attitudes to severe mental illness were limited to pessimism about recovery, difficulty in viewing people with mental illness as similar to other people and desire to keep distance in intimate encounters. Professional group and personal experience with mental illness were found to predict stigma. Only perspective taking was associated with both stigma measures; while Fantasy was positively correlated with social distance. Anti-stigma interventions in mental healthcare should prioritize nurses and psychiatrists and aim at enhancing perspective taking.

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Title: Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness and Its Correlates in Psychiatric Hospitals of Attica: The Role of Workers’ Empathy
Authors: Marina Economou
Lily Evangelia Peppou
Konstantinos Kontoangelos
Alexandra Palli
Irene Tsaliagkou
Emilia-Maria Legaki
Rossetos Gournellis
Charalampos Papageorgiou
Publication date: 01-05-2020
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Community Mental Health Journal / Issue 4/2020
Print ISSN: 0010-3853
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2789
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-019-00521-6

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Springer Medicine

Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness and Its Correlates in Psychiatric Hospitals of Attica: The Role of Workers’ Empathy

Abstract

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