RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of human rights sensitivity and social distance in psychiatric hospital orderlies on attitudes toward mental illness, including authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology. METHODS: Participants were 201 psychiatric hospital orderlies working in one national mental hospital or one of 10 private mental hospitals. Data were collected from May 9 to June 22, 2016. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regression using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. RESULTS: Human rights sensitivity and social distance were statistically significant predictors for the attitude toward mental illness in psychiatric hospital orderlies. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that human rights sensitivity and social distance explained an additional 23% of authoritarianism, 16% of benevolence, 35% of social restrictiveness and 29% of community mental health ideology. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that education programs to increase levels of human rights sensitivity and reduce the levels of social distance among psychiatric hospital orderlies would improve their attitude toward patients with the mental illness.