Bachelor of Social Work Students and Mental Health Stigma: Understanding Student Attitudes

Bachelor-level social work students (n = 198) at a midsized Midwestern public university were surveyed to evaluate their attitudes toward those with mental health concerns. Additionally, students were surveyed regarding their willingness to seek treatment for their own mental health needs. Results of the analyses suggest that the majority of students do not hold stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness. Students who believed mental health work is rewarding were less likely to be afraid or uncomfortable around people with mental illness. In addition, these students were more likely to report attitudes that acknowledge the capabilities of people with mental illness and were less concerned with others knowing their own mental health status. Implications for social work education and directions for future research are discussed.     

Attitudes of African American Adults Toward Treatment in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse

The attitudes of 155 African American adults toward the need for treatment in cases of child sexual abuse were assessed. These attitudes were assessed in relation to the following variables: age, sex, educational level, income, knowledge of short and long term effects, the cirucmstances and the nature of the abuse, and expectations regarding interactions with treatment facilities. In addition, attitudes toward other invervention facilities and agencies were assessed. The results indicated that attitudes toward treatment and intervention agencies had a significant impact on the treatment - seeking attitudes of African Americans that was dependent upon marital status. However, consistent with previous studies, participants generally held favorable attitudes toward mental health services and felt that treatment would yield positive results.     

Supporting Post-Adoption Contact for Children Adopted From Care: A Study of Social Workers' Attitudes

New legislation in England and Wales requires adoption agencies to specify the contact adopted children will have with their birth families and obliges agencies to offer all parties support to maintain such contact. This study, based on responses from 112 adoption social workers in England and Wales, used a case vignette methodology to explore workers' attitudes towards supporting post-adoption contact. The findings suggest that social workers think primarily about the child's needs and about providing services to or on behalf of the child. In contrast, adults' needs, especially the relationship between birth parents and adoptive parents, were less often considered. Workers were least orientated toward supporting birth parents. Workers from different agencies had very different attitudes towards the case vignette. This study suggests that supporting post-adoption contact is a complex professional task likely to be influenced by workers' own attitudes. Implications for training, support and supervision are discussed.     

Gender, race-ethnicity, and psychosocial barriers to mental health care: an examination of perceptions and attitudes among adults reporting unmet need

Though researchers have described psychosocial barriers to mental health care-seeking, limited research has examined ways in which gender and race-ethnicity are associated with individuals' perceptions and attitudes. This study investigates correlates of psychosocial barriers to mental health care in a population of adults reporting unmet need for mental health care, focusing on gender and race-ethnicity. Data are from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Multivariate analyses show that non-Latino white male status is positively associated with stigma avoidance and mistrust/fear of the mental health care system. Persons of lower income or educational status are less likely to report negative attitudes towards care. Findings imply a need to reconsider the roles of gender race-ethnicity, and socioeconomic status within investigations of psychosocial barriers to care. Future research should examine the relationships among social status, help-seeking behaviors, and attitudes toward mental health care.     

Moving Beyond Housing: Service Implications for Veterans Entering Permanent Supportive Housing

As a result of efforts to end homelessness among U.S. veterans, more former service members are entering permanent supportive housing (PSH). While PSH has been successfully used to house homeless veterans, more research is needed about services beyond housing placement and retention. This study uses the Gelberg–Andersen behavioral model for vulnerable populations to determine associations between predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics and recent service use (i.e., services to satisfy basic needs, occupational development, financial, healthcare, mental health) among unaccompanied homeless veterans (N?=?126) entering PSH in Los Angeles. Among the significant findings, as indicated using univariable logistic regression models, were veterans who had incarceration histories were more likely to utilize basic needs services, compared to those without incarceration histories. Veterans who received an honorable discharge were more likely to utilize occupational development services, compared to veterans with other discharge statuses. Veterans who had a case manager were more likely to utilize mental health services than those without a case manager, while those who received social security were less likely to utilize mental health services compared to veterans who did not receive social security. Veterans who met criteria for a psychological disability and veterans who met criteria for probable PTSD were more likely to use basic needs services and mental health services than veterans who fell below these thresholds. Clinical implications for social workers including “equal access to services,” “enhancing economic stability,” “providing safe and affordable housing with trauma-informed services,” and “training service social workers to deliver well-informed linkages and services” are discussed.     

Negative Stereotyping of Older Nurses Despite Contact and Mere Exposure: The Case of Nursing Recruiters in Western Australia

Ageist attitudes have been identified across different industries. The nursing profession has a high proportion of older workers. As this facilitates regular contact with, as well as exposure to, older nurses, it may be expected to show less ageism. This study investigated 163 Western Australian nursing recruiters' attitudes toward older nurses. Results showed clear evidence of both negative and positive stereotyping of older nurses. Nursing recruiters indicated that they would be more than likely to hire older nurses and that age was less relevant in making hiring decisions. These findings suggest that enhancing the employability of older workers does not necessarily change ageist attitudes. This is relevant to policy formulation, attitude change interventions, and the well-being of older workers.     

An Experiment in Overseas Field Instruction

This paper reports on a study that examined the knowledge needed for practice in community mental health and the primary source for this knowledge. Differences were found in knowledge areas needed for practice in community mental health settings when contrasted with practice in more traditional mental health agencies. The most frequently indicated source of knowledge for social work roles in community mental health was on-the-job experience. Courses in social work schools were not a primary source of knowledge for the many nonclinical roles undertaken by social workers in community mental health.     

The Effect of Parental Gender Roles on Students' Attitudes Toward Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Adoptive Couples

All of Canada's provinces and territories legally recognize the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt children; however, widespread acceptance of this practice has not been documented. Using an experimental design, with 506 university students, the present study assessed (1) attitudes toward gay, lesbian, and heterosexual adoptive couples; (2) the sex of the child to be adopted; (3) gender role characteristics of the adoptive couple; and (4) predictors of attitudes toward adoption by same-sex couples. Using vignettes describing potential adoptive couples, the results revealed that gay and lesbian couples were rated significantly less favorably than heterosexual couples when asked about outcomes for the adoptive child. Participants were more likely to approve of child placements with lesbian adoptive couples whose gender role characteristics emulated the traditional masculine/feminine dyad as compared to lesbian couples in which both partners displayed feminine characteristics. Statistically significant predictors of negative attitudes toward adoption by lesbian couples were religiosity and non-essentialist beliefs about homosexuality as well as endorsement of modern homonegative attitudes predicted negative attitudes toward adoption by gay male couples. Targeted education for social workers and adoption agency workers should be developed to ensure objective assessments of prospective same-sex adoptive couples regardless of their gender role characteristics.     

Interprofessional education for community mental health: Attitudes to community care and professional stereotypes

Social workers are considered key members of community mental health teams, yet difficulties in interprofessional collaboration between social workers and health care professionals, particularly psychiatrists and nurses, have been reported. This paper examines some sources of these difficulties in terms of perceived differences in models of mental illness, attitudes and values, including stereotyping, professional identification and role clarity. Interprofessional education (IPE) may diminish negative stereotypes and promote multidisciplinary teamwork. A theoretical framework is described and findings from the evaluation of a 1-year programme of interprofessional education for community mental health are presented. These findings suggest that attitudes and values concerning community care for people with mental health problems are largely shared by different professions, but they do confirm the existence of interprofessional stereotypes and of perceived status differences. In contrast to previous research, there was no evidence of changes in stereotypes. These findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical framework and the design of the programme.     

Changing Attitudes Toward the Homeless: The Effects of Prosocial Communication With the Homeless

One hundred, thirty-four undergraduate students participated in afield experiment designed to examine the effects of extended, prosocial communication with homeless persons, upon attitudes toward the homeless problem, of behavioral intentions towards the homeless, and of causal attributions about homelessness. It was expected that prosocial interaction with the homeless would produce shifts in attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the homeless and homelessness and result in greater attributions of external causes to explain homelessness. Nineteen experimental participants worked 15 hours at a local homeless shelter. Their responses to a posttestquestionnaire that measured a range of attitudinal and behavioral orientations toward the homeless were compared with control participants who did not work at the shelter. Subsequent analyses furnished strong evidence of positive changes in attitudes and intentions toward homelessness among the shelter workers. These participants evaluated homeless people as less blameworthy and more socially attractive than did control participants; moreover, shelter workers indicated more personal responsibility and behavioral commitment to helping the homeless than control participants. They also perceived the homeless problem to be more serious and were more likely to attribute homelessness to bad luck than control participants. However, the two groups were equally likely to attribute homelessness to various external causes such as the economy, housing costs, and governmental policies. The results are interpreted as having policy implications for volunteer service.     

Changing Attitudes Toward the Homeless: The Effects of Prosocial Communication With the Homeless

One hundred, thirty-four undergraduate students participated in a field experiment designed to examine the effects of extended, prosocial communication with homeless persons, upon attitudes toward the homeless problem, of behavioral intentions towards the homeless, and of causal attributions about homelessness. It was expected that prosocial interaction with the homeless would produce shifts in attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the homeless and homelessness and result in greater attributions of external causes to explain homelessness. Nineteen experimental participants worked 15 hours at a local homeless shelter. Their responses to a posttest questionnaire that measured a range of attitudinal and behavioral orientations toward the homeless were compared with control participants who did not work at the shelter. Subsequent analyses furnished strong evidence of positive changes in attitudes and intentions toward homelessness among the shelter workers. These participants evaluated homeless people as less blameworthy and more socially attractive than did control participants; moreover, shelter workers indicated more personal responsibility and behavioral commitment to helping the homeless than control participants. They also perceived the homeless problem to be more serious and were more likely to attribute homelessness to bad luck than control participants. However, the two groups were equally likely to attribute homelessness to various external causes such as the economy, housing costs, and governmental policies. The results are interpreted as having policy implications for volunteer service.     

Factors Influencing African American Adoptive Parents' Attitudes Toward Open Adoption

Abstract

This study explores the attitudes toward open adoption among 83 African American families adopting children through two private California agencies. Independent t-tests compared families who would and would not consider some level of open adoption. Findings reveal that the majority of families were quite hesitant about open adoptions, based primarily on the fear that birth parents would want the child back. Those with attitudes that are more positive were more likely to be in two-parent families and to have had personal experience with informal adoption.     

Availability of Mental Health Services for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Deaf-Blind

A survey of state mental health agencies found that a majority have no specific policy or procedure regarding how to provide mental health services to persons who are deaf or who are deaf-blind. Agency representatives report that staff lack knowledge of how to provide mental health services to persons who are deaf-blind and the agencies lack qualified interpreters. They recommend training for social workers and counselors to address best practices in working with people who are deaf-blind concerning communication methods and strategies, physical interaction, cultural issues, everyday life, sensory deprivation, ethics, use of an interpreter, and other general issues.     

Child abuse and neglect in Cambodian refugee families: characteristics and implications for practice

This study examines the characteristics and patterns of child maltreatment among Cambodian refugee families in Los Angeles and assesses the implications for child welfare practice with Cambodian refugee families. Data were extracted from 243 active Cambodian case files maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (LAC-DCFS). Some of the major findings include (1) Cambodian child maltreatment cases were most frequently reported to the LAC-DCFS among various Asian Pacific ethnic groups; (2) Cambodian refugee families were more likely to be charged with neglect, while their Asian Pacific counterparts were more likely charged with physical abuse; (3) the circumstances under which maltreatment occurred most frequently were parental substance abuse and mental illness; and (4) while fathers who maltreated their child were likely to use alcohol, mothers were also more likely to have a mental health problem such as depression. This study suggests the importance of collaboration between Child Protective Service agencies, substance abuse programs, traditional healers, mental health services, and other social service agencies for effective child abuse prevention and intervention efforts.     

Adolescents' attitudes toward schizophrenia, depression and PTSD

The objective of this study was to compare adolescents' attitudes toward schizophrenia, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Stigmatizing attitudes toward these three mental disorders were evaluated in 325 senior students from medical, commercial, and grammar high schools in Croatia using a 45-item questionnaire. Results indicated that stigmatizing attitudes toward PTSD were at the same level as attitudes toward depression and were less stigmatizing than were attitudes toward schizophrenia. Negative attitudes were the lowest among medical students. Gender differences existed only for attitudes toward depression. Stigmatizing attitudes toward PTSD were not as high as expected. All of the students believed mental disorders are different from other disorders. Specific knowledge of psychiatry has been shown to reduce stigma. The nonaddictive nature of psychotropic medications should receive greater emphasis when teaching psychiatry.     

A gender-informed model to train community health workers in maternal mental health

The New Haven Mental Health Outreach for MotherS (MOMS) Partnership is a community-academic partnership that works to develop public health approaches to ensure that pregnant and parenting women living in the City of New Haven achieve the highest possible level of mental health. The MOMS Partnership developed a training model for community health workers specializing in maternal mental health. Six community health workers (termed Community Mental Health Ambassadors or CMHAs) were trained on key topics in this gender-informed maternal mental health curriculum. Pre- and post-test questionnaires assessed changes in attitudes, perceived self-efficacy and control using standardized scales. The results indicated preliminary acceptability of the training curriculum in transforming knowledge and attitudes about maternal mental health among community health workers.