2^nd International Conference on
Chronic Diseases

Biography:

Khaled M Alsubiaee is a healthcare professional researcher. Mr.  Alsubiaee has interest in different research area, including risk management, community related issues, public health, and Medicine. Recently, Alsubiaee joins Australasian Medical Journal (AMJ) as a reviewer.

Abstract:

Mental health had been recognized as one of the elements of health definition by world health organization. In Saudi Arabia, mental health provision still limited at primary health centers (PHC). Moreover, a high percentage of Saudi patients have mental disorders face a lower ability of primary health care center physicians to diagnose mental illness. Available knowledge and practice form society beliefs based on how things seem. This study describes the perception of Saudi society towards mentally ill people. Methods: A cross sectional study using modified questionnaire items includes 24 questions. A pilot study conducted using 30 participants to test reliability and validity. Total participants is 249, the questionnaires distributed using three ways: interview with 8 persons on public, 33 distributed research questionnaire papers and 208 electronically via Google forum and distributed by WhatsApp and twitter applications.  11 questionnaires are omitted due to incomplete answer of questions. Data collection done in Riyadh city in 2016, April 25^th to May 7^th. Result: Majority of respondents is male, living in Riyadh, not married and have an education higher than secondary school. The age of participants is 27± 9 years with most of them are not working. The majority of participants agrees that the mental ill person is able to work, can be treated outside of hospital, mental illness can affect anybody and they can accept the friendship of mentally ill person. On the other hand, a high percentage of participants disagree with mental illness never cured, feeling uncomfortable in sharing same working area, avoiding contact, becoming afraid when encountered in conversation with mentally ill person. Conclusion: The study shows that respondents are emotional towards mentally ill people in Saudi Arabia, but there are some of respondents consider mentally ill person as dangerous people and are not willing to marry to mentally ill person.