ATTITUDES OF MEDICAL-STUDENTS TOWARDS THE MENTALLY-ILL

Numerous studies conducted during the past decades indicate that the p ublic's attitude toward the mentally ill is strongly prejudiced, Since the attitude of the general public also has an effect on community-ba sed psychiatric care, we must ask how public opinion might be influenc ed. One possible approach could be through so-called key community lea ders those who are highly respected in society because of their compet ence in a particular area. Doctors belong to this group of people. For this reason we questioned medical students, as future key community l eaders, with respect to their attitudes toward the mentally ill within the framework of their first contact with psychiatric patients during their studies. In order to make a direct comparison possible, we inte rviewed a sample of the Mannheim population who live in a part of the city where a variety of complementary facilities have been set up. The comparison shows that medical students do not have a more positive at titude toward the mentally ill; in fact, in certain areas they have an even more negative attitude toward the mentally ill than the general population has. We were not able to establish what effect teaching has with respect to changing attitudes.