Abstract

Mental illness is a maladaptive response to stressors from the internal or external environment, manifested by
thoughts, feelings, and behavioral disturbances. Consequently, people with mental illness are often seen to be
aggressive, dangerous, violent, unpredictable in their behavior, unable to handle too much responsibility, and more
likely to commit offences or crimes. To assess the perceptions, level of knowledge and socio-demographic factors
affecting the perception of mental health and mental health services among Kampala International University
students. This was an institution descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study that employed both quantitative
methods of data collection to gather data that was used to establish associations between the dependent and
independent variables. A big percentage (45.4%) strongly agreed that mental disease was treatable which was low
compared to (73.3%), and 0.3% believed that mental disease was not treatable, which was low compared to 3.3% in
a study carried out in Uganda by Wallace, some statements which describe a person with mental illness, the majority
of the participants (91.3%) ticked has been admitted, most (77.2%) ticked yes for bouts of depression, a greater
number (50.4%) ticked yes for born with an abnormality in the brain, majority (61.7%) ticked not responsible for
own actions, a greater number (72.2%) of the participants knew a health patient as a person who was incapable of
making simple decisions. The perceptions associated with factors and knowledge of mental health and mental health
services were significantly associated with age and family history of mental illness.
Keywords: Mental illness, Behavioral problems, mental health, Family history.