A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF PERCEIVED HUMAN RIGHTS IN MENTALLY ILL

Background: People with mental illness may experience wide range of human rights violations. Quantifying perceived human rights in mentally ill and putting it into perspective will help to systematically identify areas for intervention and to monitor their effectiveness. Objectives: To compare perceived human rights in persons with mental illness to a group of individuals without mental illness, and to assess if the perceived human rights have any relationship with sociodemographic variables. Methods: Data were collected from two groups: the first group comprised of 72 mentally ill persons (MI group) attending the community mental health clinics of Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala, and the second group comprised of 72 individuals without mental illness (Non-MI group) who were visitors to patients in a government hospital. A comparative, cross sectional design was used. A demographic proforma tool, Human Rights Questionnaire (HR-14), and HR-Work supplementary tool (HR-Work) were used to collect information. Results: MI group reported significant deficits in overall fulfillment of perceived human rights, specifically in the in the interindividual and work domains. Significant deficits were also detected in certain items related to health care and community in the MI group. Conclusion: Mentally ill perceive considerable deficits in the fulfillment of human rights in various areas. These findings are relevant in many respects.