Abuse Experienced by Persons with Severe Mental Illness

Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

Background: Abuse among person with severe mental illness is a serious public health concern and over the several decades researchers have focused on violence perpetrated by person with mental illness giving little consideration to the fact that severity and chronicity of mental disorder makes a person susceptible to all kinds of abuse. The current study attempts to identify three types of abuse-physical, sexual and psychological by using socio-ecological framework which takes into consideration individual, family and socio-cultural factors which acts as a risk or protective factors against abuse.

Methods/Design: The study will screen severity of mental illness and abuse among men and women by using standardized screening tools. The first phase of the study focuses on developing risk and protective factors checklist through in-depth interviews and focused group discussions. The second phase of the study is identifying risk and protective factors of abuse by administering the checklist on 257 persons with severe mental illness. Qualitative data will be analyzed by using thematic analysis and quantitative data will be analyzed by testing for normality and accordingly using parametric and non-parametric test.  Logistic regression model will be used to identify risk and protective factors for the abuse.

Discussion: This study would help to understand abuse from ecological perspective and develop a framework for risk management by capitalizing on what people know, what they can do, where they can go and how they can utilize indigenous resources to buffer the effect of abuse.