Stigma Experienced By Primary Care Givers of Persons with Epilepsy and Mental Illness : A Comparative Study

Authors

  • Kamlesh Kumar Sahu Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Sociology University of Calcutta, India & Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatric Social Work, Institute of Psychiatry (IPGME&R, SSKM Hospital), Kolkata, India
  • Arvind Kumar Psychiatric Social Worker (PSW), Department of Psychiatric Social Work, Ranchi Institute of Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS) Kanke, Ranchi, India
  • Sudeshna Basu Mukherjee Associate Professor & Head, Department of Sociology, University of Calcutta, India
  • Soma Sahu Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Bangabasi College, Kolkata, India
  • A N Verma Associate Professor (Former), Department of Psychiatric Social Work, RINPAS, Kanke, Ranchi, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51332/bjp.2014.v19.i2.53

Keywords:

Stigma, epilepsy, mental illness, attitude, discrimination

Abstract

Stigma is society’s negative evaluation of particular features or behaviour. Various medicalconditions are stigmatized. The goals of the study were to assess and compare the stigma experienced by Primary Care Givers (PCG) of persons with epilepsy and mental illness and to find out the relationship between stigma and attribution. The study was a cross sectional hospital based study used purposive sampling techniques and sampled 100 caregivers of each group; persons with mental illness and persons with epilepsy from the outpatient department (OPD) of Central
Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi, India. Family Interview Schedule to assess stigma and causal attribution was used. Result reveals that the primary caregivers of persons with mental illness experienced a greater degree of stigma than the primary caregivers of epilepsy. Difference in causal attribution of these two illnesses by the PCG may have important implication in psycho-educational programs of intervention to dispel stigma.
Key words : Stigma, epilepsy, mental illness, attitude, discrimination

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Published

2018-03-18

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Original Research Papers