Healthcare Rights of the Mentally Ill:Awareness among Healthcare Providers

Background: Enjoyment of the human right to health is vital to all aspects of a person’s life and wellbeing. Since the origin of human civilization, mentally ill patients have received the scant amount of care and concern for the community. For centuries, as a result of this, the rights of mentally ill have been abused and ignored. Psychiatric hospitals, informal healing centre and family homes reported that low- income countries neglect the mentally ill patient. Various initiatives exemplify a top down approach to promoting human rights which historically has had limited impact at the level of those living with mental illness and their families. Human rights are an important component for effectiveness in care. The health caregivers and the medical and nursing interns must know the rights of a mentally ill person; and should support, protect and meet their health needs. So, there is need to know whether the health caregivers are aware of the human rights of the patients who are mentally ill. Objectives: To assess the awareness regarding the Healthcare Rights and General rights of the mentally ill among health care providers. Method: The study was conducted in a medical college and hospital in Mangalore. The Survey method was used to collect the data. The study population was professionals and medical and nursing interns taking care of mentally ill. The Sample size was 154. Purposive sampling technique was used. The data were collected using structured questionnaires after which it was analysed using frequency, percentage, chi-square test, fishers exact test. Result and Conclusions: Results show moderate awareness. Hence, it is recommended that the health care providers should be given more awareness regarding the human rights of the mentally ill.