Two out of three people refuse to live with a person with mental illness

Almost half of the population in Spain acknowledges that they have no intention of establishing personal relationships with people who are going through a mental health problem and two out of three prefer not to live with them, according to a study carried out by the Complutense University on stigma in Spanish society.

The research, carried out by the

and presented this Thursday, analyzes and quantifies for the first time in Spain the social stigma in the population towards people with mental disorders, homelessness and intellectual disabilities.

The study "Stigma in the Spanish population. A look at people with mental health problems, homeless or with intellectual disabilities" has been carried out through a study in the affected populations and a survey of

The results show that 65% of the people interviewed refuse to live with a person with a mental disorder, 44.4% show a medium-low intention to approach these people and

.

One in three respondents admits that they would not maintain a friendship with a person with a mental disorder, although 55.6% would be willing to have closer contact with these people.

Regarding the attitudes towards these people, 42.32% recognize

and 69.29% would have

In addition, factors such as coercion for the person to enter treatment, the belief that they will need help on a recurring basis or grief obtain medium/high scores and only anger towards these people and the consideration that they are to blame for their situation is at low levels.

For the researchers, these results and the terminology used to refer to them

point to the stigmatizing tendencies present in the Spanish population.

A stigma that also falls on homeless people:

and two out of three citizens prefer not to live with these people.

However, attitudes towards this group are mostly positive (62.1%) compared to 1.7% with negative attitudes.

Among the attributions that stigmatize this group are punishment (60%), the need for help (56.5%) and coercion (34.45%).

Around 16% of citizens say that homeless people take advantage of the system, 26.5% that they have values ​​very different from theirs, around 23% that they infect public spaces and 17% believe that they have committed crimes and that they are lazy people.

For 18% of the sample, these individuals never recover;

63.3% consider that they are invisible;

50.6% that they have failed in their lives, and 68.1% feel they are excluded from society.

Regarding the stigma towards people with intellectual disabilities, the research shows that a third of the population admits that they have no intention of maintaining personal relationships with them, almost half would prefer not to live together and 34.6% reject that a child has a relationship with them. someone with these characteristics.

The researchers warn of the derogatory and non-inclusive language

that is still used to refer to these people, which warns of the presence of a relevant stigma towards this population.

In fact, more than 90% of those surveyed show high levels of stigma and 82% consider that having this condition does not usually have positive aspects, which contrasts with the fact that a percentage of over 80% has medium-high inclusive attitudes and almost the whole has positive expectations towards them.

Negative attitudes that are paternalistic are also appreciated, such as punishment (62%) or the "forced" help that these people must receive (92%) and one in four citizens believes that they are dangerous, they perceive them with fear, they tend to avoid them and They consider that they should be removed from society.

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