Evaluation Of Current Techniques In Diagnoses Of Human Immunodaficiency Virus (Hiv)
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Evaluation Of Current Techniques In Diagnoses Of Human Immunodaficiency Virus (Hiv)
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study.
The universality of harmful beliefs and accompanying unfavourable attitudes towards the mentally sick is undeniable (Thara and Srinivasan 2000, Murphy 2002, Botha et al. 2006).
The purpose of this study is to uncover the long-standing socio-cultural barriers to accepting mentally ill people in Nigeria, notably among health care practitioners in Ogun State.
The concept of mental health or sickness has a difficult definition because it is highly subjective. It can only gain near-universal meaning in the medical field, despite the fact that achieving a perfect condition of mental health or well-being is nearly impossible.
Sufferers of mental illness are members of society, yet they are seen differently by society (CMHA 1993; Murphy 2002; Paterson 2006). As a result, social attitudes towards the mentally ill differ from one another, because a people’s culture serves as a model for human behaviour.
African communities have a unique approach towards the sick or mentally ill, which is reflected in rejection, derision, and a negative perception of the sick individual (Sharma 1998; Mohammed et al. 2004; Mohammed and Mohammed 2008).
Mental disease is a dysfunction of one or more of the mind’s functions, such as emotion, perception, memory, or thinking, that causes misery for the individual and humiliation for family and society.
There are numerous types of mental disorders, but the most prevalent and broad categories include psychoses, neuroses, and mental retardation. Environmental or cultural influences, as well as physiological malfunctions and inheritance, can all contribute to mental disease; these are known as functional and organic psychoses, respectively.
An attitude was proposed by Allport (1961) as a “mental and neural state of readiness organised through experience, exerting a dynamic influence upon the individual response to all objects or to situations with which it is related” .
Similarly, (Ewhrudjakpor 1995; Mohammed and Mohammed 2008) define an attitude as “a learnt orientation or disposition towards an object or situation, which provides a tendency to respond favourably or unfavourably to the object or situation.”
Regardless of how powerful these attitude definitions are, it was (Zimbardo and Ebbesen 1969) that placed it in appropriate form by defining it as “a predisposition, towards any person, ideas, or objects, it contains cognitive, affective, and behavioural components.”
Thus, an individual’s disposition becomes an attitude when it includes components of knowing and behaving. According to Zimbardo and Ebbesen (1969), the affective component of our attitude is defined as a person’s appraisal of liking or emotional response to certain items or people.
The cognitive component describes how the thing or person is perceived. It is actually a mental image produced in the individual’s brain. This encompasses the person’s perceptions, beliefs, and knowledge of the object. The behaviour component includes the individual’s overt actions aimed at another person, group of people, or item.
Nigerians attribute their attitudes towards those suffering from mental illnesses. They usually do this stupidly (Ugwuegbu 1994). According to (Heider 1958), attribution theory describes the rules that people employ to infer the reasons of observable behaviour.
He separates this process into two parts: dispositional and situational attribution processes. Dispositional attribution is the process of attributing a person’s actions to internal dispositions (attitudes, features, and motivations). Situational attribution involves attributing a person’s conduct to environmental variables such as witchcraft, poverty, beliefs, and so on.
Despite the fact that mental health issues are quite frequent in our culture, people with mental illnesses have historically been stigmatised. According to one study, public views towards people with mental illnesses in England and Scotland deteriorated between 1994 and 2003 (Mehta N, et al, 2009).
Stigma is supposed to prevent people with mental health issues from getting proper medical care (Jorm AF,2000). Stigmatising attitudes towards mental disorders may be influenced by a lack of understanding about psychiatric illness (Schomerus G, Angelmeyer MC, 2008), and contact with people suffering from mental illnesses may result in more positive attitudes and informed opinions. (Addison SJ; Thorpe SJ, 2004).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Mental illness is a diseased condition that is considered undesirable for both the affected individual and society because it interferes with the normal functioning of the individual’s mental, psychological, and emotional make-up, blurring the capacity for insight, orientation, judgement, thought, mood, and perception (WHO 2001; WPA 2002).
In Nigerian culture, most traditional communities should care for the mentally ill because they are still members of the community, and there are traditional therapeutic regimens that can help them return to a state of relative normalcy.
However, in Nigeria, the situation has changed, with mentally ill people being socially stigmatised even after being treated (Jegede 2005; Brinn 2000; Binitie 1970).
This contrasts with the communal and tightly linked kinship system that governed African communities, in which each person is responsible for the well-being of the other (Ayorinde 1983). Mentally ill people are a nuisance because their consciousness is affected, which is why they require treatment and rehabilitation.
However, the Nigerian situation is quite different because the government and the family unit have done little to help them rehabilitate, as many mentally ill people are not cared for and are allowed to become homeless.
In addition, health staff who should know better appear to have a negative attitude towards such sick patients. There is also the issue of cultural elements, which designate such persons as evil-possessed and witchcraft ‘infected’.
Most Nigerians think that mental illnesses are caused by supernatural forces (Udoh, 2002). As a result, they maintain the unorthodox view that traditional and syncretic religious healers can provide more effective and long-term treatment than orthodox health practitioners.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
Healthcare professionals have frequent interaction with people suffering from mental illnesses; therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyse health workers’ attitudes towards psychiatric patients. This can be broken down into the following objectives:
i. To determine the reasons underlying healthcare staff’ negative attitudes towards psychiatric patients.
ii. Determine whether there is appropriate healthcare equipment and facilities for treating the mentally sick.
iii. To investigate the effects of fear on the attitudes of health staff towards psychiatric patients.
iv. To provide appropriate remedies to the identified difficulties.
1.4 Research Questions.
i. What are the factors for healthcare staff’ bad attitudes towards psychiatric patients?
ii. Is there adequate healthcare equipment and facilities for the treatment of psychiatric patients?
iii. Is there a link between fear and healthcare staff’ attitudes towards psychiatric patients?
IV. What are the most likely remedies to the highlighted problems?
1.5 Hypotheses.
H01: There is no substantial association between medical expertise, cultural beliefs, and health care providers’ attitudes towards the mentally ill.
H02: There is no substantial association between fear and the attitudes of health personnel towards the mentally ill.
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study will provide information about Nigerians’ general attitudes towards the mentally ill, particularly those of health workers. It will also enhance people’s awareness of mental illness in general, correct all misconceptions about the disease, and encourage governments and non-governmental organisations to make more resources available for treatment facilities and rehabilitation of mentally ill people.
1.7 Scope of Study
For the purposes of this study, we will only focus on the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Aro, Abeokuta. As a result, the scope of this study is limited to the Abeokuta area of Ogun State, with no additional areas studied.
1.8 Definition of Terms.
Attitude is defined as a person’s or thing’s way, disposition, feeling, stance, and so on; it is also a mental propensity or orientation.
Health workers are people who are responsible for protecting and improving the health of their communities.
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