AIDS and family planning counseling of psychiatrically ill women in community mental health clinics

Community Ment Health J. 1992 Feb;28(1):13-20. doi: 10.1007/BF00756698.

Abstract

Eighty-two of 83 mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, were surveyed to determine their attitudes and behaviors toward AIDS prevention and family planning counseling with psychiatrically ill female outpatients. Nearly all reported that information should be provided on AIDS and family planning. However, they reported that they had raised topics of AIDS with only 19% of patients and family planning with only 25% of patients. This lack of communication was confirmed by patients' own reports. Factors which might relate to this lack of communication are explored.

PIP: 82 mental health professionals including psychiatrists and 80 female chronic psychiatric patients (50% schizophrenia and 37% schizoaffective and affective disorders), both groups from 5 public funded university affiliated county mental health clinics in the US, completed questionnaires concerning AIDS and family planning. 87% of the mental health professionals believed they should take responsibility to educate patients about family planning and 95% said they should educate them on AIDS. 73% of patients felt mental health professionals should provide family planning information and 87% felt that the professionals should inform them about AIDS. Yet only 19% of mental health professionals had talked to their patients about AIDS and 8% of patients brought AIDS up as an issue. The corresponding numbers for family planning were 25% and 12%. Female professionals were more likely to discuss family planning than male professionals (p.05), but both male and female professionals were equally as likely to discuss AIDS. Mental health professionals tended to underestimate the percentage of patients who sought medical treatment outside the mental health clinics and the percentage of patients who had accurate knowledge about AIDS (p.05). For example, only 43% of the mental health professionals claimed that patients had seen a physician in the past year while 76% of the patients said that they did indeed visit a physician in the past year. 82% of mental health professionals said that patients were anxious during sexual history taking, but only 27% of patients actually reported being anxious (p.05). These results indicated that their is a definite lack of communication between mental health professionals and patients. The overestimation of patient anxiety during sexual history taking may represent anxiety on the part of the mental health professionals.

MeSH terms

  • Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / prevention & control*
  • Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / psychology
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Attitude of Health Personnel*
  • Chronic Disease
  • Community Mental Health Centers*
  • Family Planning Services*
  • Female
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / psychology
  • Mental Disorders / rehabilitation*
  • Patient Care Team
  • Risk Factors
  • Sex Education*