INTRODUCTION:

“Where perception is, there also are pain and pleasure, and where these are, there, of necessity, is desire”. Aristotle

Mental health is indicator of social life of a population. The rising level of morbidity and mortality is a sign of social as well as individual malaise. In most parts of the world, mental health and mental illness are largely ignored or neglected, resulting in increasing burden of mental disorder in the community and a widening of treatment gap¹.

Mental health is recognized globally as being of enormous social and public health importance². “There is no health without mental health” was the clear message of the European Conference on Promotion of Mental Health and Social conclusion³. The Mental Health Action Plan for Europe recommends that mental health should be made as an inseparable part of public health. Mental health should be a priority within the framework of health care services and especially within health promotion and health education⁴.

The vision of the W.H.O. Global Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 is “a world in which mental health is valued, promoted and protected; mental disorders are prevented and persons affected by these disorders are able to exercise the full range of human rights and to access high quality, culturally appropriate health and social care in a timely way to promote recovery, in order to attain the highest possible level of health and participate fully in society and at work ,free from stigmatization and discrimination”⁵.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

A Study To Determine The Level Of Perception Towards the Mental Illness Among Rural People In Selected Field Practices Area Of Dharwad, District.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

· To determine the level of perception towards the mental illness among peoples of rural field practice area.

· To find association between the perception towards mental illness of peoples with selected demographical variables.

ASSUMPTION:

· Rural peoples have perception regarding mental illness

· Peoples are prone to develop bad perception towards mental illness

HYPOTHESIS:

· There will be significant difference between perceptions towards mental illness of peoples with selected demographical variables at 0.05 level of significance.

DELIMITATION:

· The study is delimited to peoples in selected rural field practice area of Dharwad district.

METHODOLOGY:

· Research approach: Quantitative approach.

· Design: A descriptive design was used for the study.

· Sample: Peoples of field practice area of Dharwad.

· Sampling technique: Non-probability convenience sampling.

· Sample size: 60 samples.

· Tools: Data was collected with the help of structured perception questionnaires.

· Data collection techniques: Administering structured perception questionnaires.

· Plan for data analysis: Descriptive and inferential statistics

INCLUSION CRITERIA:

· Both male and female of rural area

· Who knows to read and write Kannada

· Who are willing to participate in the study

· Peoples between the age of the 20-80

EXCLUSION CRITERIA

· Peoples who are illiterate

· Those who are not willing to participate

VARIABLES:

· STUDY VARIABLES: In the present study it refers to the determine the level of perception towards mental illness.

· PERSONAL VARIABLES: age, education status, place of residence, religion, occupation and income family etc.

CONTENT VALIDITY OF THE TOOL:

In order to obtain the content validity of the tool, prepared item along with the problem statement, objectives, operational definition and scoring pattern (check list), were submitted to experts from the field of psychiatric, psychologist and Nursing departments experts there was 100% agreement by all experts on all the items .

RELIABILITY OF THE TOOL:

· The reliability of the tool was computed by using Karl Pearson Correlation technique.

· The study tool was found to be adequately reliable with a 0.98 among peoples of rural field practice area.

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS:

Description of tool:

It consist of 2 parts.

· Part 1- Demographic variables such as age, religion, education .Place of residence, type of family, occupation, family income .etc,

· Part 2- structured schedule tool comprises of 34 questions in 6 domains determine the level of perception towards mental illness. Check list consist of positive and the responds were graded in 5- point scale and Totally disagree, Almost totally disagree, Neutral, Almost totally agree, Totally agree type items.

RESULTS:

Data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ORGANIZED UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTION

SECTION-1 Descriptive of the baseline variables.

Frequency and percentage distribution of perception according to their age, Education, occupation, Family income, Religion, Type of family, Ownership of the house, any mental illness present in the family

S. NO	Personal variable	Frequency	Percentage
1.	Age
	a. 20-30 years	35	58.33%
	b. 31-40 years	5	8.33%
	c. 41-50 years	10	16.67%
	d. Above 51 years	10	16.67%
2.	SEX
	a. Male	33	55%
	b. Female	27	45%
3.	Religion
	a. Hindu	42	70%
	b. Muslim	9	15%
	c. Jain.	6	0.01%
	d. Christian	3	5%
4.	Education
	a. Illiterate	10	0.017%
	b. Primary education	13	21.67%
	c. Secondary education	20	33.33%
	d. Degree	17	28.335
5.	Occupation
	a. Farmer	3	5%
	b. Govt employer	9	15%
	c. Private employer	1	1.67%
	d. Others	20	33.33%
6.	Type of family
	a. Nuclear family	47	78.33%
	b. Joint family	10	16.67%
	c. Extended family	2	3.33%
7.	Family Income per month
	a. Below 5000	28	46.67%
	b.5000-10000	17	28.33%
	c. Above 10000	12	20%
8.	Ownership of the house
	a. Own	34	56.67
	b. Rented	9	15%
	c. Other	17	28.33%
9.	Any mental Illness is present in your family
	a. Present	7	11.67%
	b. Not present	53	88.33%

SECTION -2

Deals with Mean, median, standard deviation, and range of the level of perception towards mental illness among peoples in rural field practice area n=60

Perception scale

Mean

Median

S. D

Range

Perception

73.17

73.5

6.35

Minimum score - 55

Maximum score - 90

The data presented in the section 2 shows that the perception mean score of rural peoples was 73.17 with Standard deviation of 73.5, median of 6.35and a range of 55-90 as against possible range of 0-136.

SECTION -3

Level of perception towards mental illness among people in selected rural field practice area. n=60

Level of perception	Frequency	Percentage
Low (0 – 45)	10	10%
Medium (46 – 91)	50	90%
High (92 – 136)	0	0%
Total	60	100%

The data presented in the section - 03 shows that the level of perception towards mental illness among peoples majority 50 (90%) were medium perception and in 10(10%) were low perception, and 0(0%) high perception.

SECTION – 4

Chi-square values among people in selected rural field practice area regarding level if perception according to their selected personal variables

Deals with chi square value is significant between Level of perception towards mental illness with personal variables there was significant association among the variables like age, sex, occupation, type of family, education, family income, ownership of the house, religion, and presence of mental illness.

CONCLUSION:

Findings of study showed that rural people had perception towards mental illness shows that Low perception 10%, median perception 90%, high perception 0%.

NURSING IMPLICATION:

Health education and counseling is an important tool of health care agency. It is one of the most effective interventions. It is concerned with promoting mental health as well as reducing perception towards mental illness. The extended and expanded role of a professional nurses are emphasis the preventive and promotive aspects of the mental health.

REFERENCES:

1. Elizabeth M (2006). Mental health, and mental illness. Foundation of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, A clinical approach. 5th ed. Elsevier Inc. Ch.1, pp. 2 Life Science Journal, 2013; 10 (2)http://www.lifesciencesite.com.

2. National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, of Arlington VA [NAMI] (2008).Mental health and Mental illness. Available@[http://www.namimass.org].

3. Mary C. Townsend, Dsn, Aprn, BC, (2008) Introduction to psychiatric/mental health concept, in: Essential of psychiatric mental health nursing, fourth edition, America, F. A. Davis, 4:5.

4. Birch, S., Lavender, T., and Cupitt, C. (2005). The physical healthcare experiences of women with mental health problems: Status versus stigma. Journal of Mental Health, 14 (1), 61-72.

5. Link BG, Struening EL, Rahav M, Phelan JC, and Nuttbrock L: On Stigma and its Consequences: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study of Men with Dial Boyle et al. BMC Medical Education (2010), 10:71.

Received on 14.08.2015 Modified on 01.09.2015

Asian J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2016; 6(4): 454-456.

DOI: 10.5958/2349-2996.2016.00085.9