A Descriptive Study to Assess the Mental Health Literacy among the Nursing Students (18-20 Years of) in the Selected College at Puducherry

Dr. S. Suvitha*, Ms. E. Rama, Mr. T. Raviranjan, Ms. K. Ranjini

College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Postgraduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences, Indira Nagar, Puducherry.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: suvithasundar9@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

A descriptive study to assess the Mental Health Literacy among the Nursing students (18-20 years of) in the selected college at Puducherry. The objectives of the study was to assess the mental health literacy among the Nursing students. The research approach selected for the study was quantitative research approach and descriptive research design. The study was conducted at MTPG&RIHS at Puducherry. Total 100 B.Sc. Nursing Students who completed the subject mental health nursing were selected based on Non-probability convenient sampling. The researcher used standardized tool, Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS) data collection. The findings of the study revealed that 82% of samples had moderate level of knowledge on Mental Health Literacy, 18% of samples had adequate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and none of the samples had inadequate knowledge regarding Mental Health Literacy. Regarding knowledge, out of 100 samples, 82% of subjects are belongs to moderate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and Mental illness. Remaining 18% had adequate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and Mental Illness none of the samples had inadequate knowledge about the Mental Health Literacy and Mental Illness.

KEYWORDS: Mental Health Literacy, Nursing Students.

INTRODUCTION:

Mental Health Literacy defined as ‘Knowledge and belief about mental disorder which aid their recognition, management and prevention’. It includes, ability to recognize disorders and facilitate help seeking. Awareness of types of professional help and Treatment available. Knowledge of effective self - help Strategies. Knowledge skills to give first aid and support to others. Knowledge of how to promote mental well - being and prevent mental health disorder.¹

Mental health literacy considered a prerequisite for early recognition and intervention in mental disorder, and for this reason, it has become a focus of research over the past few decades.

Assessing this construct is relevant for identifying knowledge gaps and erroneous beliefs concerning mental health issues, to inform the development of interventions aimed at promoting mental health literacy as well as the evaluation of this intervention.²

NEED FOR THE STUDY:

The need for this study is to explore the mental health literacy of students. This study is part of growing interest in mental health literacy among young people.³ Over 400 university students indicated their knowledge of over 90 Psychiatric illnesses label derived from DSM4. They rated disorders on six questions concerning whether they had heard the disorder, knew anybody with it, could define or describe it, knew what causes it, whether it is cured or not, whether it is common.⁴

The current mental health literacy in India at 2016 is over 916 respondents, 54.15% male, 45.85% were female. The percentage of MHL among the respondents were very low that is depression 29.04%. Schizophrenia or Psychosis 1.31% .The study findings indicate that the adolescents preferred reaching out more to informal sources including family members such as mothers than formal sources for self than for others indicating deeply prevalent stigmatizing attitudes toward, mental health conditions.⁵

There is a gap of knowledge among the university students, especially for applied sciences, arts and technology so education regarding mental health should be given as awareness campaigns, educational workshops and training courses of Nursing officers and mental health professionals. Education should emphasize to reduce the psychosis and depression as a real mental illness. Professionals should work together with the media to disseminate scientific knowledge about symptom, causes, risk factors, management of mental disorders. Government should improve Mental Health budgets and identify economic and resource barrier that hinder mental health practice and policy. However, the present study have a limitation of small sizes due to time constraints will create a generalizability of findings in future among different student population.^6,7

OBJECTIVES:

To assess the mental health literacy among the Nursing students.

MATERIAL AND METHOD:

Research design:

A descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study.

Research study setting:

College of nursing, MTPG&RIHS, Puducherry.

Population:

All B.Sc. Nursing students studying at Puducherry.

Sample:

B.Sc., Nursing students from MTPG&RIHS in between the age of 18 to 20 years nursing students who have completed the subject Mental health nursing.

Sample size:

100 Students.

Sampling technique:

Non-probability convenience sampling technique was adopted to select the samples.

RESULTS:

The study result shows that 82% of samples had moderate level of knowledge on Mental Health Literacy, 18% of samples had adequate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and none of the samples had inadequate knowledge regarding Mental Health Literacy.

CONCLUSION:

A descriptive research design was used to assess the level of mental health literacy in selected college in Puducherry. The objective of the study was to assess the mental health literacy among the Nursing students.

There are 100 students in the selected government college of Puducherry were fulfilled the inclusion criteria. They were selected by simple random sampling technique and data were collected by using Mental Health Literacy scale to assess the level of knowledge on mental health literacy. Percentage, frequencies, mean, median and standard deviation were used to describe the findings of the collected data. Regarding knowledge, out of 100 samples, 82% of subjects are belongs to moderate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and Mental illness. Remaining 18% had adequate knowledge about Mental Health Literacy and Mental Illness.

REFERENCES:

1. Indian Journal of Psychiatry Nursing- 2003; 45: 208-217 by Bhola. P. Kapur

2. M- Child and adolescent Psychiatric epidemiology in India.

3. Indian Journal of Public health and Research and Development-2017; 8(3): 76-81.

4. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

5. MAMC Journal of medical science - 2019

6. Journal of neurosciences in rural practices at 2015; 6(3): 355

7. www.worldwidejournals.com

Received on 19.06.2021 Modified on 02.07.2021

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2021; 9(4):383-384.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2652.2021.00088