The association between employers' mental health literacy and attitudes towards hiring people with mental illness.

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that employers' negative attitudes about hiring people with mental illness is due to stigma. While social contact has been proved to be effective for improving prejudicial attitudes, the influence of knowledge about mental illness on attitudes has been unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between employers' mental health literacy and their experience or intention of hiring people with mental illness. METHODS: A web-based survey was conducted with Japanese employers. The survey included questions regarding participants' knowledge about mental illness and whether they had hired those with mental illness. RESULTS: Seven hundred employers participated in the survey. Among participants, while depression was widely recognized and understood according to medical criteria, schizophrenia was not well known. Thirty-five per cent of participants had hired people with mental illness. Those having experience of employing them were more knowledgeable about mental illness. Participants wanting to employ people with mental illness also possessed greater mental health literacy than those who did not want to do so. CONCLUSIONS: Employers' better mental health literacy could lead to hiring people with mental illness. However, as the relationships between the literacy and employment attitudes are complex, further research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]