Changing attitudes toward parents of the chronically mentally ill.

Abstract

This paper reports a successful method of changing students' attitudes toward parents of the chronically mentally ill. Using a pre-test, post-test field experiment with 39 students in the experimental group and 27 in the control group, the intervention produced a significant decrease in students' beliefs in the interpersonal etiology of mental illness. The model for change involved five principles for bringing parents of the chronically mentally ill into direct, interpersonal, interactive contact with students in a 3 hour class period.

Reducing the Mental Health–Related Stigma of Social Work Students

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first RCT that evaluates the impact of a mental health antistigma intervention on social work students, the first mental health antistigma intervention to improve intended behavior of social work students, and one of the few interventions to show impact on university students' stigma 3 months after the intervention, although we only observed it on attitudes related to authoritarianism toward people with schizophrenia (Yamaguchi et al, 2013). This is the first intervention to show improvements in the intended behavior of social work students (Lewis & Frey, 1988;Shera & Delva-Tauiliili, 1996). This could be explained by the content of the interventions.…”

“…This is the first intervention to show improvements in the intended behavior of social work students (Lewis & Frey, 1988; Shera & Delva-Tauiliili, 1996). This could be explained by the content of the interventions.…”

“…Both interventions included a contact component-with parents of chronically mentally ill adults (Lewis & Frey, 1988) and with consumers of mental health services with severe mental illness (Shera & Delva-Tauiliili, 1996)-and evaluated changes in attitudes and/or social distance immediately after the intervention. Social work students showed improvements in attitudes toward people with mental illness (Shera &Delva-Tauiliili, 1996) and parents of people with mental illness after the intervention (Lewis & Frey, 1988) but not in social distance. These studies used small sample sizes and external control groups (students on other courses) which could have introduced some bias and only evaluated the short-term impact of the intervention.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have evaluated the impact of interventions to reduce mental health–related stigma in social work students (Lewis & Frey, 1988; Shera & Delva-Tauiliili, 1996). Both interventions included a contact component—with parents of chronically mentally ill adults (Lewis & Frey, 1988) and with consumers of mental health services with severe mental illness (Shera & Delva-Tauiliili, 1996)—and evaluated changes in attitudes and/or social distance immediately after the intervention. Social work students showed improvements in attitudes toward people with mental illness (Shera &Delva-Tauiliili, 1996) and parents of people with mental illness after the intervention (Lewis & Frey, 1988) but not in social distance.…”

How parents view professional behaviors: A cross-professional analysis

“…94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which requires the involvement of parents in educational planning and P.L. 99-457, early intervention legislation which strengthens the mandate for family involvement at both the case and policy levels (Garwood & Sheehan, 1989); (2) increased consumerism in American society which extends to educational and social service sectors (Moxley, Raider, & Cohen, 1989) and includes recognition of families' roles as "customers" whose opinions about the goods and services they use are important; (3) increased advocacy for a shift from deficit models to alternative "empowerment" or "strengths" approaches which emphasize collaborative strategies (Cochran, 1987;Dunst, Trivette, & Deal, 1988;Kalyanpur & Rao, 1991;Pinderhughes, 1983;Poertner & Ronnau, 1989;Shelton, Jeppson, & Johnson, 1987;Solomon, 1985); and (4) a gradual change in public attitudes that indicates some lessening in the stigma associated with mental and emotional disorders (Lewis & Frey, 1988).…”