British Journal of Psychiatry (1996), 168, 191-198

British Journal of Psychiatry (1996), 168, 191-198Community Knowledge of Mental Illness and Reaction 'to Mentally 111 PeopleGEOFFREY WOLFF, SOUMITRA PATHARE,TOM CRA1G and JULIAN LEFFBackground. We test the hypothesis that negative attitudes to mentally ill people may be fuelled by a lack of knowledge.

Method. A census of knowledge of mental illness was conducted in two areas prior to the opening of long-stay supported houses for the mentally ill in each area. Three attitudinal factors (Fear and Exclusion, Social Control and Goodwill) which had been extracted by factor analysis of the CommunityAttitudes toward the Mentally III (CAMI) inventory (see previous paper) were analysed in respect of their associations with knowledge of mental illness. Results. Most respondents (80%) knew of somebody who had a mental illness but a substantial proportion of respondents had little knowledge about mental illness. Social Control showed an association with knowledge of mental illness. Groups who showed more socially controlling attitudes (especially those over 50 years old, those of lower social class, and those of non-Caucasian ethnic origin) had less knowledge about mental illness. Regression analysis revealed that when knowledge was taken into account, age had no effect on Social Control, and the effect of social class and ethnic origin was diminished. Respondents with children, who showed more Fear and Exclusion, were not less knowledgeable about mental illness. Conclusions. The results support the hypothesis that negative attitudes, especially in older people, are fuelled by a lack of knowledge. Negative attitudes among people with children are not related to a lack of knowledge.The general public is coming into increasing contact with the mentally ill with the shift towards community-based care in the UK. The community's attitudes towards the mentally ill will have a major influence on the acceptance of the mentally ill and their social .integration. These attitudes may be at least partly determined by knowledge about mental illness. This paper reports on community knowledge about mental illness and reaction toward mentally ill people, prior to the opening of group homes in the vicinity.

Method ,Details of the survey, interviews and questionnaires are given in the previous paper (WolfT et al, this issue). Three factors had been extracted by factor analysis of the Community Attitudes Toward Mental Illness Inventory (CAMI). These were labelled Fear and Exclusion, Social Control and Goodwill. Fear and Exclusion included items such as "It is frightening to think of people with mental problems living in residential neighbourhood". Social Control included items such as: "As soon as a person shows signs of mental disturbance, he should be hospitalised". Goodwill included items such as: "We need to adopt a far more tolerant attitude toward the mentally ill".

Statistical analysisAnalysis was carried out using SPSS (Norusis, 1988). Tests of relationship of attitudes to knowledge and behavioural intention variables were carried out using a Student's =0.001; Asian: Beta=0.19, P=0.00l;Caribbean: Beta=0.18, /'=0.001); age (Beta=0.15, P=0.05); length of time in the street (Beta =0.20, P = 0.01) number of children under the age of 18 in the household (Beta = 13, P=0.05); and having suffered from mental illness (Beta=0.13, P=0.05) (Multiple J?=0.72, F= 24.01, d.f. =8, ^