Prejudice against psychiatry

Zimna Aleksandra, Wróblewski Hubert. Prejudice against psychiatry. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2021;11(8):204-208. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2021.11.08.020 https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2021.11.08.020 https://zenodo.org/record/5219324 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2021; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 01.08.2021. Revised: 15.08.2021. Accepted: 18.08.2021. Prejudice against psychiatry Aleksandra Zimna, Hubert Wróblewski Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin Abstract Introduction: There are many stereotypes in society about psychiatric patients and the diseases they suffer from. Psychiatrists themselves are often treated with reserve by society. They cause respect among patients and, at the same time, fear of having to visit. Aim of the study: The aim of the study is to analyze the attitude of society to psychiatric patients, their diseases and psychiatrists. Methods: The results of the study were obtained on the basis of an online survey. Results: 138 respondents took part in the survey, 81.2% were women and 18.8% were men. As many as 22% of respondents do not know who a psychiatrist is, confusing his competence with a psychologist. Over 40% believe that they would feel more stressed before visiting this doctor than with any other specialist, 31.9% associate visiting a psychiatrist with decreased self-esteem, difficulty in finding a permanent job (21%) and perceive them as embarrassing (70 %) More than half of the respondents admit that they would conceal this fact from the employer. As many as 62.3% of the respondents would not enter into a partnership with a person receiving treatment from a psychiatrist. Conclusions: On the basis of the obtained results, it can be noticed that the society is prejudiced against psychiatric patients, diseases in this field and specialist doctors themselves. Fear, insecurity, and withdrawal can be conditioned by an inadequate level of knowledge. However, as the years go by, society's confidence in psychiatrists is growing, to comfort. Key words: psychiatrist; mental illness; psychiatrist; prejudice; stereotyp