International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume II, Issue XII, December 2018 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Perception of University Students on Mental Illness Patients

A.H. Najwa¹, Z.M. Lukman², M.Y. Kamal³, R. Normala⁴, C.Azlini⁵

^1,2,3,4,5Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu Malaysia

Abstract—Lack of understanding about mental disorder among society has caused the mentally ill patients to suffer from social exclusion. Mental illness patient is often misunderstood as having a severe disease however society failed to understand that it is also associated with many other common mental illnesses such as dementia, anxiety disorder and depression.This study was conducted to determine the perception of society towards mental disorder patients. A total of 353 respondents which consisted of Sultan Zainal Abidin University (UniSZA) students were involved in this research. This study adopted a descriptive analysis approach by reporting the results of the study in terms of frequency and percentage. The instrument used for this study is a questionnaire. The researcher examines the students’ perceptions towards mental disorder patients through two aspects 1) students’ perceptions towards the behavior of the mentally ill patient and 2) students’ perceptions towards the life of mentally ill patients. Thus, the results of the study on behavioral aspects showed that the majority of students agreed that mental patients behaved unknowingly (90.1%), while some students disagreed with the notion that mental illness patients have lower IQ (62.0%). In terms of perception towards the life of mental patients, the majority of 97.2% students agreed that mental patients need immaculate and thorough care, while 84.7% students disagreed with the outlook that patients do not have a good future. The results showed that UniSZA students have a negative perception of the behavior of mental disorder patients, however, reacting positively towards the perception of mental patients’ life.

Keywords— Mental Illness, Perception, Mental Patients, University Students, Behavior

I. INTRODUCTION

The issue of mental illness is not a new issue in any countries and Malaysia is unexceptional from this problem because it is believed that the number of psychiatric patients in this country is increasing from day to day [1]. [2] stated that one in six Malaysians suffered from a various form of mental illnesses. Furthermore, lack of education regarding mental illness among society eventually leads to social stigma towards those who suffered from it because society failed to comprehend the mental state of the mentally ill patients[3].