Honors Theses
Date of Award
5-10-2019
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Pharmacy Administration
First Advisor
Erin Holmes
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Mental disorders affect nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States in a given year, and that number is steadily increasing. Pharmacists, being some of the most accessible and frequently contacted health care professionals, must be prepared to provide support for these patients. They can play a key role in whether or not there is a positive patient outcome. Education can play a role in pharmacists’ comfort with and knowledge of mental illness. The primary objective of this study was to determine if University of Mississippi early-entry pharmacy students’ mental illness knowledge, familiarity, and acceptable social distance affected their attitude towards mental illness patients. The secondary objectives of this study were to test for differences in knowledge, social distance, and attitude towards mental illness based on gender, year in school, work experience in a pharmacy, and previous courses addressing mental illness. The study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional survey to collect study data from 95 early-entry pharmacy students. The respondents reported their lifetime knowledge of mental illness just above average. A majority of the respondents reported their familiarity with mental illness on the lower extremity of the spectrum. Most respondents had observed a person, in passing, who they believed to have a severe mental illness but had never lived with a person with a mental illness. The respondents were more willing to have some social distance between someone with a mental illness. They were more willing to work alongside that person but less willing to share an apartment with that person. Overall, the respondents had a positive attitude towards individuals with mental illness. However, there was still a slight negative stigma. This could be improved by adding more courses that address mental illness into the curriculum.
Recommended Citation
Gray, Brianna, "A Comprehensive Examination of University of Mississippi Early Entry Students’ Perceptions of Mental Illness" (2019). Honors Theses. 1180.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1180
Accessibility Status
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