title: Community attitudes to mental illness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The baseline findings from a controlled study of the effect of a public education campaign on community attitudes to mental illness are presented.
  
  
  METHODS
  A census of attitudes to mental illness was conducted in two areas, prior to the opening of supported houses for the mentally ill. Factor analysis of the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) inventory revealed three components: Fear and Exclusion, Social Control and Goodwill.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The only determinant of Fear and Exclusion was having children. The main determinants of Social Control were social class, ethnic origin, age, having suffered mental illness and having children. The main determinant of Goodwill was educational level. The attitude factors were predictive of respondents' behavioural intentions toward the mentally ill. Respondents with children and non-Caucasians were more likely to object to the mentally ill living in their neighbourhood.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Any intervention aimed at changing attitudes to mentally ill people in the community should be targeted at people with children and non-Caucasians, as these groups are more likely to object.
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London. gsw@scpu.mrc.ac.uk
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pathare
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leff
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004645:Empathy; D004739:England; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D016352:Group Homes; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012929:Psychological Distance; D011639:Public Opinion; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors