The purpose of this research was to evaluate health workers knowledge about mental disorders and their performance in delivering mental health services as well as examining their attitude towards mental disorders. The study was part of a general and country wide evaluation of the integration of mental health in the PHC. In this study, the knowledge, attitude, and performance of 266 health workers (out of 4254) who were participated in the PHC mental health program toward mental disorders, epileps, and mental retardation were assessed. These workers were selected through the multiphasic random sampling method. The knowledge, attitude, and performance queationnaires specially devised for the study were used for gathering of data.

The results indicated that subjects responded appropiately to more than 50% of the questions on the knowledge and attitude questionnaires. The results also showed that health workers were successful in learning mental health concepts and in identifying, reffering and following up the psychiatric patients. Cultural problems, despersed population-under care – and teaching mental health to public wre classified as problems faced by health workers.