Public perceptions of former psychiatric patients in England.

To determine whether casual contact with former psychiatric patients changes public perceptions of and attitudes toward persons with mental illness, 100 residents of urban North London, England, were interviewed before and six months after a residential facility for former patients was opened in their neighborhood. Their responses were compared with those of a control group of residents living elsewhere. The semistructured, door-to-door interviews revealed extremely negative attitudes toward persons with mental illness, largely formed by the media. No differences between the study and control groups were found. The negative attitudes in the study group had not changed at the six-month interview.