No abstract

Mental health advocates have proposed recovery as a vision for severe mental illness. The purpose of this study is to examine psychometric characteristics of a measure of the psychological construct. Thirty-five participants in a partial hospitalization program were administered the Recovery Scale and measures of quality of life, social support, self-esteem, consumer empowerment, psychiatric symptoms, needs and resources, global functioning, and verbal intelligence. Results showed the scale to have satisfactory test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Analysis of the concurrent validity of the Recovery Scale showed recovery to be positively associated with self-esteem, empowerment, social support, and quality of life. It was inversely associated with psychiatric symptoms and age. Implications of these findings for a psychological model of recovery are discussed.

Leadership seems to be an important variable for understanding a team's impact on its consumers.

Bass's (1990) multifactor model contrasts transformational and transactional styles of leadership with an essentially ineffective style: laissez-faire leadership. This study examines the relationship between these leadership styles and measures of organizational culture and staff burnout in mental health services teams. There were 236 leaders and 620 subordinates from 54 mental health teams who provided their perceptions of leadership style, organizational culture, and burnout in their program. Results show transformational leadership to be positively associated with a cohesive organizational culture and negatively associated with burnout. Moreover, leaders and subordinates differ in their ratings of transformational leadership-leaders viewed themselves more positively. These findings are helpful for understanding the central role of leaders in the organizational structure of teams.

In an attempt to facilitate the dissemination and regular implementation of behaviour treatments in real-world settings, research has examined staff attitudes that may pose barriers to these treatments. The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to examine the construct validity of perceived organisational barriers to behavioural programs. One hundred and eighteen staff working in community-based treatment programs for adults and children with severe mental illness completed the Barriers to the Implementation of Behavior Therapy Test. An analysis from a previous study (Corrigan, Kwartarini, & Pramana, 1992) identified two reliable and valid factors that suggested perceived organisational barriers: institutional constraints and insufficient collegial support. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis on data from this study supported the earlier factor structure. Research participants also completed team functioning measures of individual staff burnout, collegial network satisfaction, organisational culture, and team leadership. Attitudes about institutional constraints and insufficient collegial support were found to be associated with burnout, collegial network satisfaction, and organisational culture. Strategies for disseminating behavioural programs must target organisational barriers too.