Perception of mental illness, social support and mental health service seeking behavior among patients at Lira Regional Referral Hospital, Northern Uganda

Abstract

The study examined the association between perception of mental illness, and social support, and mental health service seeking behaviour among patients at the outpatients department of mental health unit of Lira Regional Referral Hospital. Objectives: the following objectives were used to guide the study: 1) To assess the relationship between perception of mental illness and mental health service seeking behaviour, 2) To determine the relationship between the perception of mental illness and social support, To examine the relationship between social support and mental health service seeking behaviour, and 4) To determine the interaction effect of perception of mental illness and social support on mental health seeking behaviour. Method: systematic random sampling procedure was used to recruit a total of 234 patients into the study. Correlational and regression analysis were used to determine relationships among the variables and to examine the interactional effect of the dependent variables on the dependent variable. Results: Significant relationships were found between all the variables and significant interactional impact of the dependent variables was found on the dependent variable. Conclusion: the study underscores the importance of social support and mental illness perception in encouraging people living with mental illness to seek mental health services. Recommendations: for further research in the area are included.