Background: The view of people suffering from mental illness by different communities are important in understanding the level of knowledge that they have about mental illness and how the community deals with such people.

Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of the Saudi public toward mental illness and the mentally ill people in the community.Methods: A cross sectional, descriptive survey was conducted at primary healthcare centers in Al Baha – Saudi Arabia. `A convenient sampling method was used to recruit adult group of participants aged between 18 to 70 years. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used to collect data consists of three parts; sociodemographic data, knowledge questions about mental illness (n=16) and attitudes and practices of community members toward people with mental illness statements (n=9). Results: The study included 400 individuals. Females represent 73.5% of them. The age of more than one third of them (38.9%) ranged between 20 and 29 years whereas that of 25% ranged between 30 and 39 years. Overall, total mental illness knowledge score ranged between 36 and 65 (out of a possible maximum of 80) with a mean of 52.1 and standard deviation of 4.7. Female participants were more knowledgeable about mental illness than males (52.41±4.62 vs. 51.16±4.97), p=0.020. Total mental illness attitude and practice score ranged between 12 and 44 (out of a possible maximum of 45) with a mean of 29.1 and standard deviation of 4.9. Females were more likely than males to have higher attitude and practice score concerning mental illness (29.51±4.83 vs. 27.92±5.06), p=0.004. The highest attitude and practice score was reported among participants aged between 20 and 29 years (30.16±5.07) while the lowest score was observed among those aged 40-49 years (27.71±407), p=0.004. Regarding marital status, single participants had higher significant attitude and practice score than married ones (30.27±5.05 vs. 28.49±4.82), p=0.005. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between mental illness knowledge score and attitude/practice score (r=0.39, p<0.001).Conclusion: Knowledge regarding mental illness is deficient in many aspects. However, the attitude and practice of the participants towards mentally ill patients is encouraging in many points. There is a need to improve public knowledge about mental illness to minimize stigma towards mentally ill patients.

Key Words: Public Knowledge, Attitudes , Practices , Mental Illness , KSA.