BACKGROUND: The complexity of difficulties and limitations associated with intellectual disabilities entails the need for accessing support in healthcare services by competent physicians. The way medical education is structured in different countries may influence how well medical students are prepared to address the needs of patients with intellectual disabilities. METHODS: Three self-constructed scales were used to compare the self-assessed competencies of undergraduate medical students from Poland, Serbia, and the Czech Republic working with individuals with intellectual disabilities and to understand the significance of selected variables differentiating these competencies across countries. RESULTS: A total of 357 medical students from the three countries constituted the study sample. The students generally acknowledged the necessity of preventing discriminatory practices in healthcare and recognized the importance of special protection for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Differences were observed in their social distance and self-assessed competencies in working with these patients. Additionally, sociodemographic factors and prior experience played differing roles. CONCLUSIONS: The education of future doctors should include the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills to work with patients with disabilities.

• Keywords
• Attitudes, Beliefs, Competence, Education, Healthcare practice, Intellectual disability, Medical students,
• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Clinical Competence * standards   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Intellectual Disability * MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Surveys and Questionnaires MeSH
• Students, Medical * psychology   MeSH
• Education, Medical, Undergraduate * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Poland MeSH
• Serbia MeSH

High rates of mental health problems are a growing concern in Czech higher education, negatively impacting students' performance and wellbeing. Despite the serious nature of poor mental health, students often do not seek help because of negative attitudes and shame over mental health problems. Recent mental health research reports self-compassion is strongly associated with better mental health and reduced shame. However, relationships between those constructs remain to be evaluated among Czech students. This study aims to appraise the relationships between mental health problems, negative mental health attitudes, mental health shame, and self-compassion in this population. An opportunity sample of 119 psychology students from a Czech university completed questionnaires regarding these constructs. Correlation, regression, and path analyses were conducted. Mental health problems were positively associated with negative mental health attitudes and shame, and negatively associated with self-compassion. Self-compassion negatively predicted mental health problems, while negative attitudes and shame did not. Last, self-compassion fully mediated the negative attitudes-mental health problems relationship, and partially mediated the shame-mental health problems relationship. Findings suggest self-compassion is essential for mental health in Czech students and associated with negative mental health attitudes and mental health shame. Czech universities can benefit from incorporating self-compassion training into their curricula to protect students' mental health.

• Keywords
• Czech university students, mental health, mental health attitudes, mental health shame, self-compassion,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the changes in public stigma towards people with mental health problems in Czechia; and to investigate the association between these and the exposure to the ongoing mental health care reform and one of its implementation projects focused on reducing stigma. METHODS: We analyzed data from three cross-sectional surveys representative of the Czech adult population. We used linear regression models to compare population attitudes and desire for future contact with people with mental health problems between the 2013/2014 baseline and the 2019 follow-up. In our 2019 sample, we employed linear regression models to assess the relationship between exposure to mental health care reform and nation-wide anti-stigma campaign, and population stigmatizing attitudes and intended behavior. We utilized a propensity score matching procedure to mitigate potential bias. RESULTS: The 2013, 2014, and 2019 datasets consisted of 1797, 1810, and 1077 participants, respectively. Population attitudes improved significantly between 2014 and 2019 (B = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.06; 1.93), but we did not detect a change in population desire for future contact with people with mental health problems. Exposure to the nationwide anti-stigma campaign or mental health care reform was associated with more favorable attitudes (B = 4.25, 95% CI = 2.07; 6.42 and B = 7.66, 95% CI = 3.91; 11.42), but not with higher desire for future contact with people with mental health problems. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health care reform and its nation-wide anti-stigma project seems to have a positive impact on population attitudes, but not on desire for future contact with people with mental health problems.

• Keywords
• Anti-stigma program, mental health care reform, mental health literacy, public attitudes, stigma,
• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Mental Disorders * therapy   MeSH
• Mental Health * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Cross-Sectional Studies MeSH
• Social Stigma MeSH
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH