Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine employment status and mental illness among psychiatric patience of Federal Psychiatric Hospital Calabar, Nigeria. The ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The population of this study comprised all the in-patients in the hospital. The sample of this study comprised of 50 patients who were randomly picked from acute wards of the hospital. Four research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Instrument titled “employment status and mental illness questionnaire” was used for the study. The validity of the instrument was established using face validation method. The data obtained were analysed using Chi- square test. Each of the hypotheses was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that the rate of mental illness, recovery and relapse differ significantly between the employed and the unemployed. The result further revealed that societal regards for the employed and the unemployed do significantly differ. Based on this findings, it was concluded that employment status do influence mental illness in Federal Psychiatric Hospital Calabar, Nigeria. It was recommended that Government should create more job opportunities for the unemployed so as to get them occupied, which in turn will help in taking away the time they would have engaged in anti social activities.

Key Words Employment: A state of functionality of an employee under agreement with his employer.

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