To determine whether casual contact with former psychiatric patients
changes public perceptions of and attitudes toward persons with mental
illness, 100 residents of urban North London, England, were interviewed
before and six months after a residential facility for former patients was
opened in their neighborhood. Their responses were compared with those of a
control group of residents living elsewhere. The semistructured,
door-to-door interviews revealed extremely negative attitudes toward
persons with mental illness, largely formed by the media. No differences
between the study and control groups were found. The negative attitudes in
the study group had not changed at the six- month interview.
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