A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Information Education Communication (IEC) package on Knowledge and Attitude regarding Mental Illness among Women Self Help Groups in a Selected Rural Area at Coimbatore

Mental illness is a serious medical illness. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are often the disorder of brain and resulting by a diminished coping capacity of the individual with the ordinary demands of life. poor knowledge and negative attitude towards mental illness threatens the effectiveness of patient care and rehabilitation. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness Of Information Education Communication Package (IEC) on knowledge and attitude regarding mental illness among Women Self Help Groups in selected rural area at Coimbatore. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the existing level of knowledge and attitude regarding Mental illness among Women Self Help Groups. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of IEC Package Regarding Mental illness among Women Self Help Groups. 3. To find out the relationship between the knowledge and attitude regarding mental illness among Women Self Help Groups. 4. To determine the association between the knowledge regarding mental illness with their selected demographic variable. 5. To determine the association between the attitude regarding mental illness with their selected demographic variables. Pre experimental study was used in this study. 60 women from women self help groups were selected through purposive sampling method as samples. The data was collected by structured self administered questionnaire .post test conducted with the same questionnaire after the teaching programme through LCD projector. The study revealed that pre-test knowledge mean score was8.9, standard deviation was 2.56. and post-test mean score was 15.8, standard deviation 2.70 and the mean difference is 0.14, the ‘t’ value was 27.70, which is statistically significant at 0.05 level. The pretest attitude mean score was, 41.2 standard deviation was 5.01. and post-test mean score was 51.5, standard deviation 5.17 and the mean difference is 0.16, the ‘t’ value was 21.24, which is statistically significant at 0.00level. The study concluded the presence of stigma regarding mental illness everywhere and education will remove those stigmas effectively