The influence of psychiatric hospital and community residence labels on social rejection of the mentally ill

In order to identify some of the variables influencing public level of acceptance and attitudes towards people with a mental illness, a social distance scale accompanying a case vignette was sent to 488 postal respondents. The vignette contained systematically varied residence labels (psychiatric hospital/community) and behaviours (disturbed/control). There was a 43 per cent response rate. The results showed that social rejection was influenced by the behaviour described in the vignette, the respondents' judgement about the behaviour, and the respondents' previous contact with people with mental illness. The given residence label had an impact on only one component of social rejection and only for those presented with the control vignette. The findings are discussed in relation to current community care policies.