Physiotherapists play a key role of the multidisciplinary team for the treatment of mental illnesses. However, the focused education of physical therapists in this field in Greece is insufficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of Greek physiotherapy students toward psychiatry and mental health, and secondly, how do these attitudes correlate with their demographic characteristics.
In this cross-sectional study, undergraduate students responded firstly to some demographic questions and after to statements on the Attitudes Toward Psychiatry – 30 scale. This study was conducted through Google Forms using the snowball sampling method and distributed through link in the five Physiotherapy Departments of Greece. Statistical significant level was at p = 0.05 and appropriate measures of central tendency and dispersion were used to extract the results. Spearman correlations coefficient, point bi-serial correlation and one-way ANOVA used for correlations.
The number of participants was 204 [139 female, 64 male, 1 other, mean age (SD) 22 (4.6) years old]. Students’ attitudes were moderately positive [mean (SD) 112.5 (12.9)] and were moderately correlated with gender, with whether the student had been in close contact with a person with a mental illness or had experienced a mental illness. Physiotherapists are equal members of the multidisciplinary psychiatric rehabilitation team, provided they have the necessary clinical knowledge and experience. Therefore, expanding undergraduate and postgraduate education opportunities is essential to adequately prepare them for this role.
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study conducted in Greece, highlighting the importance of physiotherapy education in mental health in the country.
