NewHongkongers discriminate against people with psychosis despite better understanding: study

Hongkongers’ negative attitudes towards people with psychosis have not softened in the last five years despite an improved understanding of the condition, according to researchers.

Two telephone surveys conducted in 2009 and this year by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Hong Kong found that the general public thought less of people suffering from the severe mental disorder, in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.

The study also found that employers would not hire people with psychosis.

HKU’s public opinion programme conducted the phone surveys among 1,016 people in 2009 and 1,018 respondents this year.

Some 52 per cent of respondents admitted thinking less of people with psychosis and more than 71 per cent admitted disrespecting the opinion of those with the disorder – which includes symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thoughts and speech – a slight increase from 2009.

Nearly 87 per cent of those surveyed this year said they would consider applicants without psychosis first when hiring people, half a percentage point less than in 2009.

“Discrimination towards people with psychosis is very evident at workplaces in Hong Kong,” said Professor Eric Chen Yu-hai, who led the study.