A Survey on Public Attitudes Toward Mental Illness and Mental Health Services Among Four Cities in Saudi Arabia

Our objectives are to assess the public attitude toward mentally ill people and mental health services and to compare the attitudes of those who have past history of mental illness, those who have been exposed to mentally ill people, and those who have not. We conducted a cross-sectional study among subjects ( =1268) in four Saudi Arabian cities (Riyadh, Abha, Dammam, and Jizan), recruiting participants from malls and parks. All participants were administered "the knowledge and attitudes toward mental illness and mental health services scale". Participants were divided into three groups; non-exposed to mental illness group ( =687, 54.1%), exposed to mental illness group ( =305, 24%), and having past history of mental illness group ( =276, 21.8%). Results revealed that non-exposed group had the lowest knowledge about mental illness (